They're not your typical digging crew.

Difficult and environmentally sensitive terrain doesn't put them off, nor does the fact that they have to do the work the old-fashioned way - by hand - in Canada's North.

The seven-member team is rough and ready to go in what's being hailed as the Yukon's largest current project - but they're giving a whole new meaning to the term manpower: They're all women.

The crew of seven is employed at Tatchun Creek, north of Whitehorse, in a machine-free zone along an environmentally sensitive portion of a new power transmission route for Whitehorse-based Yukon Energy Corp.

Photo courtesy of Chris Colbourne
Cassandra Vassallo, left, and Georgina Billy are part of the all-women team working on the Yukon project.

The line, part of a two-phase construction project that will add needed power to a growing Yukon market, requires the team - along with two all-male crews - to hand-dig more than 60 holes for transmission poles and log anchors, and to install 136-kg culverts in each hole.

The culverts will prevent the holes from caving in prior to the poles being installed.

Holes for the transmission poles are about 2.7 metres deep and close to 1.2 metres round, and holes for the log anchors are 1.8 metres deep. By the time the digging crews complete their work on this part of the project, they will have excavated about 7,500 cubic feet of rock, earth, clay, cobble and boulders, all by hand.

"For the most part, it's always men on Valard projects," says Adam Budzinski, project manager for Edmonton-based Valard Construction, which is in a joint-venture partnership with Arctic Power of Whitehorse and three Yukon First Nations to build the project's first phase.

"We represent the power lineman trade with our business. To my knowledge, it would be uncommon to see even one woman on a crew, so it is definitely a bit of a coup. It is definitely something new."

The women started digging on July 12, with their excavations expected to be completed by Aug. 8.

But Budzinski adds that they're going to try to keep most of the female crew to help out with the pole-setting activities - the poles will be flown in and placed from the air - meaning they should have an additional four to five days of work on this subcontracting job.

Budzinski says the quality of work from the women is on par with that of their male counterparts.

"They're doing just as well," says Budzinski. "The feedback I get from their supervisor is that they're moving just as much earth as the other crews. And from what I understand from the foreman there, that crew is pretty well the best organized one he has.

"They prepare themselves hot lunches in the field and they've been building pretty efficient little labour camps so that they have somewhere to get out of the sun or rain."

The transmission line has been spurred by rapid growth in Whitehorse, including the recent entrance of big-box retail players such as Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire, and the addition of facilities for last year's Canada Winter Games, as well as growing mining interests in the region.

In Phase 1, a 98-km-long transmission line will run from the town of Carmacks, about two hours north of Whitehorse, to the more northerly Pelly Crossing, which includes the sensitive Tatchun Creek portion.

A 27-km spur line to Sherward Copper's Minto mine is expected to go into service at the end of September.

Phase 2, tentatively scheduled to start construction next year and be completed in 2010, is about 74 km and will run north from Pelly Crossing to Stewart Crossing.

That's important, says Yukon Energy Corp. communications supervisor Janet Patterson, because it will allow the public utility to join its two transmission lines together.

"If we need more power in the south we can move it from the north or if we need more power in the north we can move it from the south," she says.

"It just gives us a lot more flexibility and it should help if there are shortages on parts of the system - to be able to move that power around a lot more."

Patterson says that the new work is even more vital since the region is not connected to the North American electric grid and must find its own ways of generating power.

The all-woman crew, adds Patterson, is amazing.

"It's my understanding that the women saw men in their community going off and getting these great jobs and opportunities and said: 'What about us?' So they worked with two First Nations development corporations and they formed this work crew. It was really an initiative of the women themselves," says Patterson.

Part of that credit is due to Damaris Billy, who used to run the local restaurant in Carmacks, adds Budzinski.

"Damaris took it upon herself to lobby, to have the group formed. But at the end of the day, the (First Nations company) Carmacks Development Corp. deserves part of the responsibility and you have to give all of the women credit for trying to do something different," says Budzinski.

"We thought it was terrific. For Yukon Energy it's been really important to us that we have local people doing the jobs as much as possible," says Patterson. "They (the women) seem so enthusiastic. Not to take anything away from the men, but these women are putting their heart and soul into this work."

Phase 1, from Carmacks to Pelly Crossing, is expected to cost about $27.8 million, with the Minto spur line costing approximately $8.8 million.

The Yukon government is providing $10 million toward the project and the Sherwood Copper Minto mine is contributing the full cost of the spur, plus an additional $7.2 million for the main line.

Yukon Energy's Patterson says it means both the community of Pelly Crossing and the Minto mine will then be able to switch to hydro power for its electricity, instead of the more costly diesel now being used.

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)