Economy

With major cruise tourism developments on the horizon in the capital city, the City and Borough of Juneau is resurrecting a task force to look at whether its current approach to managing tourism is working.  

At a Juneau Assembly committee meeting Monday night, members approved the relaunch of the Visitor Industry Task Force and its members. Mayor Beth Weldon said the task force will be crucial in informing the direction the city takes to guide any future growth. 

“There is some issues that need to be addressed, and our tourism director relies heavily on these recommendations on how to move forward with her job,” she said. 

Juneau saw another record-breaking cruise ship tourism season this past summer, with more than 1.7 million passengers coming off ships and into town. 

The task force launches as Goldbelt Incorporated is planning a new $500 million cruise ship port on the backside of Douglas Island. And, that plan coincides with another dock development by Huna Totem Corp., an Alaska Native village corporation based in Hoonah. The Assembly approved the corporation’s plan to build a new cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau this spring. 

Weldon said she wants the task force to make big picture recommendations, like a 10-year tourism plan for Juneau. She also wants them to tackle more specific issues like addressing crowding and congestion in Auke Bay, regulating the whale watching industry and reducing ship emissions.  

Juneau Assembly member Ella Adkison will chair the committee, along with eight members that Weldon handpicked. They are Kirby Day, Kirsa Hughes-Skandijs, Sarah Lowell, Matt Catterson, Meilani Schijvens, Adrienne Scott, Shem Sooter and Jeremy Timothy.

Some members are returning from the previous task force, which originally sunsetted in 2020. Weldon said they represent a wide range of perspectives on tourism’s future. 

“I would say this community is no longer deadly against — as a community as a whole — deadly against tourism,” she said. “Nor are we a community that’s opening our gates wide for tourism.”

The task force has until the end of June to submit its recommendations to the Assembly. The first ship of the 2026 cruise season is slated to arrive in late April. 

Ten years ago, the state of Alaska signed an agreement with British Columbia that sought to give Alaskans a say in the development of mines upstream of Southeast Alaska. Environmental advocates say Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration has walked away from key pillars of that agreement — but state officials say they remain committed to keeping cross-border rivers clean.

It’s a boom time for mines in British Columbia. There are a few reasons for that — the rise of renewable energy and the growing importance of microchips, and, of course, President Trump’s trade war. Provincial leaders have fast-tracked a variety of resource development projects — including some proposed mines upstream of communities in Southeast Alaska.

“The majority of this region is staked with mining claims,” said Breanna Walker with the group Salmon Beyond Borders, which has campaigned for stricter limits on mines near rivers that cross into Southeast Alaska.

Ten years ago, Gov. Bill Walker signed an agreement with the premier of British Columbia that he said would give Alaskans a greater voice in the future of B.C. mines. It led to the creation of a working group where senior officials from Alaska and B.C. would meet twice a year to discuss mining and the environment.

Breanna Walker says that was a reason for optimism — but she says in the years since, the Dunleavy administration has failed to live up to its commitments.

She pointed to a variety of issues, including the Dunleavy administration’s decision to discontinue water quality monitoring on cross-border rivers in 2021. Walker said she’d also like to see the meetings between provincial and state leaders include other stakeholders, like Alaska tribes and fishermen.

Additionally, Walker said the Dunleavy administration has failed to keep up the pressure on B.C. to clean up the Tulsequah Chief Mine upstream of Juneau that’s been polluting the Taku River for decades. And she said the state has failed to keep Alaskans informed about other mining activity and pollution upstream of Southeast — despite a portion of the agreement that says Alaskans should be notified.

Walker points in particular to pollution at a mine near Hyder, at the state’s southeastern tip.

“Alaskans learned about that pollution through the media. They did not learn about that from the state or from the province of British Columbia,” she said. “That’s a clear example, in my opinion, of how the state is abdicating the responsibility that they have to Alaskans.”

The Dunleavy administration disagrees. State officials point to webpages maintained by the state and B.C. detailing the ongoing work between the two governments. And they say the water quality monitoring that ended in 2021 duplicated similar efforts at the federal level.

Sam Dapcevich of the state Department of Environmental Conservation said the state has continued to advocate for Alaskans’ interests at working group meetings.

“DEC is fully engaged and working with our B.C. counterparts on activity awareness and status of projects,” he said.

Just last month, at the most recent cross-border meeting, Dapcevich said the Alaska delegation asked for an update on the cleanup of the Tulsequah Chief Mine. And in response, the company working on cleanup is planning to hold a public webinar on Wednesday.

“I just want people to understand that our agencies are deeply involved between the two governments, advocating for cleanup, and we’re using shared science to protect these rivers,” he said.

Dapcevich said the state remains committed to ensuring Alaskans’ voices aren’t lost in the process.

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Over Thanksgiving weekend, Centennial Hall in downtown Juneau was bustling with people browsing for holiday gifts fashioned by around 175 vendors. 

Juneau Public Market ramped up the holiday shopping season with hundreds of people buying handmade art, jewelry, clothes and other goods. Vendors from near and far said it’s one of the most meaningful markets of the year for them. 

One ceramicist has been selling her kitchen wares at Juneau Public Market for more than 40 years. Betty Bell lives in Milton, Washington. She travels for the market and to see her daughter and grandkids, who live in Juneau. She said this annual visit is meaningful for her family. 

“It’s allowed me to get to know my grandchildren,” Bell said. 

Bell said market sales pay for her plane ticket every year. Now that she’s 91 years old, she sells her pottery almost exclusively at this market, but it used to make up about a quarter of her annual sales when she was throwing more clay. 

“Juneau has embraced me and supported me over the years, and I’ve kind of become your local, out-of-town potter,” she said. 

That sense of community connection is what brings many artisans back year after year. Vendors pay between $250 and $1,200 for a booth space, and many say they rake in a large portion of their annual sales from this market alone. 

Carley Thayer is an Aleut jewelry maker. Her business, Bering Sea Designs, features sharp lines, soft fur and colors of the ocean — inspired by the coastal cliffs of Unalaska, where she spent her early years.

“I make sea otter fur and metal jewelry,” she said. “So I’ve got earrings and bracelets and necklaces, some big pieces, like this body piece here that was on the Alaska Fashion Week runway.”

She said that selling her jewelry at Juneau Public Market makes up about half of her annual sales. But it’s about more than just the money for her.

“Growing up here, you know everybody, so it’s like a family reunion,” Thayer said. “It’s fantastic. We love Public Market.”

A woman wearing a pair of her earrings she’d purchased from Thayer in the past briefly stopped by the booth. 

“It’s really incredible to see your art walking around,” Thayer said after greeting her.

It was Bailey Mccallson’s first time as a vendor at the market with his business, Tuskworthy Premiums LLC. He’s a Yupik artist who traveled from Fairbanks to sell his earrings and sculptures made of carved walrus ivory. He said selling art through markets and online is important, “especially for Native people in communities where job security is hard.”

Mccallson has been a full-time artist for six years. Beyond the income, he said it’s allowed him and other Native artists to maintain their way of life. 

“They can stay in their homes rather than moving into the cities and be there for the elders so that apa doesn’t lose his grandchildren who pull the nets for him while they’re fishing and just to keep those cultural values strong and held together,” he said. 

Camille Jones owns Treetop Tees, a shop in downtown Juneau with shirts featuring locally-inspired designs. One of her favorites right now is an Eaglecrest chairlift, packed with cartoon animals representing each lift.

“Porcupine, black bear, hooter and ptarmigan — especially with black bear closing — I was like, we need to commemorate all four ski lifts,” she said. 

She said the market is important for business, particularly in the winter when tourists aren’t strolling into her storefront. 

“This is our biggest weekend of the year,” Jones said. 

Juneau resident Peter Metcalfe started hosting Juneau Public Market in 1983. He said vendors make somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000 on average over the three-day weekend. He said Black Friday this year was one for the books. 

“A couple of my longtime vendors said they did more in two hours than they’d done in all three days of previous events,” Metcalfe said. 

He said most makers are based in Alaska, and a little more than half are Juneau locals. 

“I can’t put a figure on how important this is for Juneau’s cottage industries, but I know many people who participate — it means a lot to their annual incomes, and it keeps them in the game,” he said. 

Artisans said it’s a warm and welcoming space that brings the art community together during the holiday season.  

Metcalfe said he generates revenue from the $10 per person entrance tickets, while most of the vendor fees pay what it costs to put on the event, including rental space and staffing.

Metcalfe is 74 years old. After he had a heart attack while running on Brotherhood Bridge Trail in 2021, he says people have been asking him about the market’s future.

“I do have a succession plan, and they introduce themselves as the heir and the spare,” he said with a chuckle. 

They’re his nephews. 

“So this will continue on within the Metcalfe family,” he said. 

Shoppers can continue gathering gifts locally at Juneau’s Gallery Walk this Friday. 

A Superior Court judge is allowing the City and Borough of Juneau to refile eviction cases against the tenants who are refusing to vacate the historic Telephone Hill neighborhood in downtown Juneau. 

The city wants to demolish the homes on the hill this winter to make way for denser housing, but some tenants are refusing to leave and filed a lawsuit to prevent demolition and preserve the homes. 

Last month, a District Court judge dismissed the city’s eviction cases a few days before the city planned to evict the tenants, pending the outcome of that lawsuit. 

Then last week, before Thanksgiving, a Superior Court judge ruled that the evictions and demolition were two separate issues and should be handled as such. That ruling opened the door for the city to refile eviction cases against the tenants who remain on the hill. 

The lawsuit is scheduled for a pre-trial conference on Dec. 12. 

Fred Triem, the attorney representing the tenants, said the latest ruling doesn’t say anything about where the case might be heading. 

“It’s not an indication of what the final ruling will be. So I’m not either encouraged or discouraged by what took place the other day,” he said. “It’s just kind of a neutral scheduling event.”

Juneau’s City Attorney Emily Wright said she agrees with the judge — the demolition and evictions should be handled separately. 

“These last tenants need to move out, and we’re taking possession of the houses that we own as a city — we’re the landlords,” she said. 

The city refiled the three eviction cases last Wednesday and requested that they be heard within 15 days of filing. But the tenants’ lawsuit could take much longer to resolve. Wright previously said the city plans to take swift action if the evictions are approved, like changing the locks and removing remaining belongings from the homes as soon as possible.

Wright said the city plans to file new cases against two other residents who were given an extension to move out but haven’t done so. 

Developers’ efforts to overturn the cancellation of a vast gold and copper mine planned for southwest Alaska are getting a boost from national mining and pro-business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

On Nov. 24 and Nov. 25, the Chamber and the National Mining Association filed separate friend-of-the-court briefs in the lawsuit brought by the developers of the proposed Pebble Mine against the Environmental Protection Agency, which vetoed the mine.

Neither group has intervened in the case against the EPA, but the briefs represent the groups’ support for the proposed mine and offer legal arguments that Judge Sharon Gleason could consider as she debates whether to move the project forward.

In 2023, the EPA invoked a rarely used “veto” clause of the Clean Water Act to say that there was no way that the proposed Pebble Mine could be developed without significant harm to the environment. The large mineral deposit is located at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the most abundant sockeye salmon fishery in the world.

The administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, which supports the project, and the proposed mine’s developers, filed separate lawsuits in federal court to overturn the rejection, as did two Native corporations that work as contractors for the developers. Those cases have since been combined.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case directly, which has left the issue in front of Judge Sharon Gleason in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.

Another lawsuit filed by the state claims that if the veto is upheld, the federal government will owe Alaska $700 billion, the state’s estimate for the value of the mine if built as planned. That case has been put on hold until the District Court rules.

In July, the administration of President Donald Trump indicated that it might try to settle the suit and withdraw the veto. If that occurs, it could come before Jan. 2, when the EPA is slated to file a written response to the plaintiffs’ motions for summary judgment.

If the EPA continues to fight the case, the last written arguments are scheduled to be finished by the end of February. Any oral argument would take place afterward.

If the federal government drops the case, it doesn’t mean a free path for Pebble: Several environmental organizations, fishing groups, tribal organizations and Bristol Bay locals have also intervened in the case and intend to fight in court.

The Alaska Legislature is also expected to consider a bill that would block both Pebble and any successor projects that might emerge.

In its brief, the National Mining Association — joined by the American Exploration and Mining Association and the Alaska Miners Association — call the EPA’s veto “overly broad” and say that if it is upheld, the act “will almost certainly chill investment in domestic mining activities” because other proposed mines could also be subject to a veto.

The Chamber of Commerce, which has backed the Pebble Mine project since at least 2022, said that if the veto is upheld, it has the potential of encouraging other vetoes, which would “disrupt important industries in which many of the Chamber’s members participate.”

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has unanimously approved a series of requests for financial secrecy filed by attorneys representing John Malone, the telecom billionaire seeking to take a controlling interest in Alaska’s largest internet firm.

The approval means Malone will not be required to publish his personal finances and that the financial condition of three GCI-related subsidiaries will also remain secret. The finances of GCI Liberty, the parent company, are already public due to required filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In October, Malone, 84, told the Wall Street Journal that he would be stepping away from day-to-day operations of his various companies but would retain his controlling interests. Bloomberg has estimated his net worth to be approximately $10.6 billion.

The approval was published just before 4 p.m. on Black Friday. The five governor-appointed commissioners said they were granting the requests because they were in line with the commission’s prior practices, because they don’t have the power to regulate much of GCI Liberty’s business, and because “the public interest in disclosure of the financial information of (the three subsidiaries) is outweighed by the potential competitive financial disadvantages demonstrated in the petition.”

The chair of GCI’s parent company, GCI Liberty, Malone holds shares controlling 53.5% of GCI Liberty’s voting power. But Malone’s personal power has been restricted until recently to 49.32% of the company’s voting power, regulatory filings state.

Now, Malone is seeking to increase his voting power above 50%.

The commission’s Friday order does not decide that request; it addressed the combined requests for financial secrecy on behalf of Malone and the three GCI Liberty subsidiaries.

Alaskans submitted a combined 67 comments across three dockets related to Malone’s proposal. Almost all were opposed to the request for secrecy.

In a response to those comments, Malone’s attorneys said “no legitimate public interest will be served by requiring (Malone) to file his personal financial information.”

The response also said that “the acquisition … will be seamless and transparent to customers because the GCI companies will continue to provide the same services to Alaska customers under their same experienced management. There will be no operational or management changes to the GCI companies as a result of the acquisition.”

GCI’s attorneys had argued that the financial statements of the three subsidiaries should stay confidential because GCI’s competitors were not required to reveal their finances, and it would be unfair for them to open their books.

“We find that disclosure … might create a competitive or financial disadvantage,” the regulators concluded.

In addition, unlike the way that water and power utilities’ rates are regulated by the RCA, GCI’s prices are not regulated by state law.

For that reason, plus the fact that GCI Liberty’s combined financial statements are publicly available, regulators concluded, “public interest in disclosure … is outweighed by the potential competitive financial disadvantages demonstrated in the petition.”

On the request for secrecy covering Malone himself, Malone’s attorneys argued that he isn’t legally obligated to provide financial support to GCI Liberty, and thus, “requiring the submission of his personal financial information would not advance a public interest objective.”

They also argued that in 2018, when wealthy telecom entrepreneur Jane Eudy obtained full control of several Interior Alaska telecom companies by taking 100% control of American Broadband, a national firm, the RCA did not require her to publicize her finances.

Members of the public argued that disclosure is in the best interests of Alaskans.

Megan Johnson, one of dozens of people who offered public comments, said, “Telecommunications in Alaska are not just about convenience, they are lifelines for education, healthcare, emergency services, and economic development, especially in rural and Indigenous communities. Decisions made by owners unfamiliar with our terrain, seasonal challenges, and cultural values risk undermining the progress we’ve made in closing the digital divide.”

Kirsa Hughes-Skandijs of Juneau wrote, “I am gravely concerned about the idea of concealing financial information, particularly when it comes to consolidating control of a public good like an ISP, broadcast and telecommunications company.”

Commissioners ultimately sided with Malone.

“We find the circumstances presented in these dockets similar to those we considered (in 2018),” they wrote.

“We find that under the circumstances … no legitimate public interest will be served by requiring Dr. Malone to provide a statement of financial condition.”

Commissioners are scheduled to make a final determination on Malone’s takeover by April 1.