Latest news with #Whitehorse-based
CBC
02-05-2025
- CBC
2 face weapons charges after incident that forced evacuation of 2 blocks around Whitehorse non-profit
RCMP in Whitehorse say they have arrested two women and recovered a replica firearm after an incident at the Blood Ties Four Directions building Wednesday night. The incident in question forced the evacuation of the building as well as homes and businesses within a two-block radius around it. Chief Supt. Lindsay Ellis, the commanding officer of Yukon M Division, said the arrest happened just after 11 p.m. and the investigation continues. Speaking to CBC Thursday morning, Ellis said police seized a firearm as well. Later in the day, Blood Ties Four Directions executive director Jill Aalhus said police informed them it was in fact a replica firearm that was seized. In a news release later on Thursday, RCMP said that they responded on Wednesday evening after receiving initial reports that a woman had entered the facility with a gun and was pointing it at people inside. Police said an emergency response team, police dog services and a crisis negotiation team then went to the area and tried to communicate with the woman inside, but received no response. Police eventually confirmed there were two people inside the building along with a firearm. Officers managed to enter the building to find two women "who remained uncooperative," the release states. The women were then arrested with help from police dog services and police recovered a replica firearm. The two women, aged 53 and 23, are each charged with pointing a firearm, carrying an imitation firearm for the purposes of committing an offence and uttering threats. Blood Ties Four Directions is a Whitehorse-based non-profit organization that runs a supervised consumption site in the city. In a Facebook post Wednesday night, the organization described the situation as a "serious safety incident". It wrote that no one was injured and the incident "was safely resolved with the support of emergency responders". It also said there has been inaccurate information circulating online about the incident. "In situations like this, it's especially important to rely on accurate information rather than rumours, which can cause unnecessary fear and confusion," the organization wrote. After the incident resolved, it said it was hoping to be able to resume offering services "as quickly as possible."
CBC
17-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
For some Yukoners, climate change is a key issue this federal election campaign
While topics like tariffs, affordability and housing have dominated conversations about the upcoming federal election, some Yukon voters say another issue should also be at the forefront — climate change and the environment. "It seems to be something we're ignoring now," Haines Junction resident Julie Bauer said. "I know there's other focuses but I think the environment has to be a priority, especially for our youth and for all of us…. We have to think about other things than just day-to-day stuff, we have to think about the future of our children." Whitehorse resident Jennifer Staniforth also said it was a priority for her. "The environment hasn't been talked about a lot and I would hope that that would be a big part of this election," Staniforth said. "I think a clean, healthy planet is the best thing we can do for ourselves right now." A federal government report in 2019 found that Canada, on average, was warming at double the global rate, with the North warming even faster than the rest of the country. Besides warmer days, symptoms of a changing climate have also included increased precipitation, warming and melting permafrost, higher water temperatures and more intense wildfire and flood seasons. While climate change may seem like a standalone issue, Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle, a Whitehorse-based conservation planning biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, said it's interwoven with other topics. "My perspective is, we want an MP that can … actually see that intrinsic connection between our economy, our social welfare issues and our environment because they're all interlinked," she said. That's a reality that Yukon First Nations have been grappling with for years now, with traditional travel routes and harvest — including for chinook salmon — along with entire communities threatened by the impacts of climate change. "It's really emotional when we talk about our homelands and when we talk about loss and damage because everything that is alive keeps us as First Nations people in our traditional territory alive," Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation elder Lorraine Netro previously said at a global climate summit. The Yukon's capital city also knows the impact of climate change first-hand, having seen one of its main arteries into and out of the downtown core — Robert Service Way — blocked by a major landslide off a neighbouring escarpment in 2022. "That slide was a wake-up call and a clear sign of the impacts of climate change on our community and our infrastructure," Mayor Kirk Cameron told reporters earlier this month. The slide, and smaller ones in the years since, have cost the city millions of dollars for clean-up and the installation of safety barriers, but an even more expensive project lies ahead — permanently rerouting the road away from the escarpment. The federal government is pitching in more than $45 million for the project via its Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund. Cameron said that kind of federal funding was "critical" for dealing with the triple-threat of climate change, aging infrastructure and a growing population, and that he would ensure the next federal government remains aware of that. What candidates say CBC Yukon asked the four candidates running for the territory's lone MP seat how they planned to address climate change during a forum Tuesday. Here's how they responded, with answers edited for clarity and length. Ryan Leef (Conservative Party) We believe in technology, not taxes. We saw the carbon tax didn't [have] any measurable impact on dealing with the climate issue, which is really a global issue and it just ultimately broke the backs of Canadians in terms of affordability of life. So our focus is going to be on investing in technology. If we utilize some of the ethical and the clean products that we have here in the country, extracting our own resources, we can reduce the emissions that are utilized by our reliance on other global partners. Climate change is not a Yukon-caused phenomenon, although we suffer from the effects of it far more than anyone else, so we do need to be conscious about climate issues, but we also can play a much bigger role in reducing global climate emissions with our technological advances in Canadian innovation. Katherine McCallum (NDP) Canadians are doing their part, but we can't keep relying on working Canadians to solve this enormous problem by themselves. And the way to do that is to make sure that the big polluters are paying for the damage that they're causing and, and they shouldn't be rewarded for the damage that they're causing. So we need to be taxing big oil and gas companies and making sure that that money isn't going offshore. We need to end the consumer carbon tax and instead put the onus on the biggest polluters in subsidies to the most profitable oil and gas companies. Put money in people's pockets by making homes more efficient and reinvesting in greener and renewable energies on the home front and, and making it easier for people and more affordable people to buy a zero-emissions vehicle and make their homes more energy efficient. Brendan Hanley (Liberal Party) Canada has an important role to play and to continue to play as a climate leader. And I'm glad to see among Mark Carney's many, many skills, he was also the UN envoy on climate change, including climate financing. So part of his vision and our vision is harnessing the markets to leapfrog into new energy infrastructure and develop more energy self-sufficiency, which we need to do anyway in the light of the U.S. tariffs, but also to accelerate the transition towards renewable energy. We also need to keep in mind emergency preparedness in the North. We also need to hold industrial polluters to account because we need to continue to bend the curve in emissions. I would say the consumer carbon tax did have an effect about 10 to 15 per cent of emissions reductions. We need to compensate for that on the industrial side. Gabrielle Dupont (Green Party) Clean energy transition — this is one of my priorities for this campaign. We do know that taxing the big emitters, it's three times more efficient than taxing consumers, taxing people. And I do not believe that the carbon tax in the Yukon was the right tool. And so when we do keep taxing the big emitters, the revenue that we're getting from this, we're using [it] to fund clean energy transition. And the Yukon, we're really not that far from being 100 per cent renewable. And I'm pretty sad that we actually missed the boat on projects like the Atlin hydro expansion because of a lack of commitment from the federal government. And so as a Green MP, these are the projects that I would champion as hard as I can, to get these projects out the door. This is exactly what we need to do for our clean energy transition in the Yukon so let's fund these projects.
CBC
29-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Yukon government sets priorities to guide this year's nominee program
The Yukon government has announced a set of priorities for this year's Yukon Nominee Program, marking a departure from its past first-come, first-served approach for applicants. The program, which is intended to help fill local labour market gaps by bringing in skilled immigrants, has remained closed since the federal government cut the Yukon's annual allocation to 215 nominees — half of what it received in 2024. On Thursday, the government said it will invite employers to submit an expression of interest in applying for the program. Employers will complete a form online, providing basic information about a specific foreign worker they want to nominate. That intake period will open on Monday, and close on April 22. Then, the Department of Economic Development will invite employers to submit a full application to the nominee program if their candidate fulfills one or more of the priorities. Those include: residence and employment in the Yukon for at least one year, being a graduate of Yukon University, ability to speak French, and a temporary measure letter of support from the Yukon government to obtain a Yukon-specific work permit. This year, 10 nominations will be allocated for people in regulated health-care professions. Intake for the nominee program was first paused for Whitehorse-based employers in May 2024 when applications exceeded the allocation limit for that year. The federal government halved the Yukon's allocation of nominees in 2025 from the previous year, to 215. The Yukon government then extended the program's hiatus to consult local businesses on how to best use that limited number of spots. The territory's Economic Development department considers the new process to be fairer and more strategic than the past practice, where the quickest businesses got access to the limited number of nominees. The listed priorities aim to reduce staff turnover rates, target those who are more likely to stay in the Yukon, support Francophone immigration and help prospective nominees who were affected when the program was first closed. While Premier Ranj Pillai believes the priorities reflect those of the business community, he singled out retail as an industry that will see fewer nominees. "I don't think everybody will be happy. I think parts of the economy that have really leaned on these programs are probably not going to see the same amount of availability to workers," he said. Pillai said the Yukon and federal government are having conversations about adding 100 nominations to the territory's allocation. Opposition cites concerns raised by auditor general The nominee program was a subject in the legislature's question period earlier this week, with the official opposition asking the government how it was responding to concerns raised by the auditor general in January. When speaking to reporters, Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon only had a quick glance at the government's news release about the new priorities, which was posted Thursday as MLAs were sitting in the legislature. But he wanted to see changes that address the auditor general's concerns such as a lack of trust in the program's integrity and perceptions of unfairness. "We had hoped to see some sort of changes to the process that would accommodate the concerns raised by the auditor general, particularly around the lack of enforceable conflict of interest," Dixon said. NDP Leader Kate White also alluded to the auditor general's letter, which discussed the imbalance of power between employers and nominees. "There's a real vulnerability when you're a person from another country looking to come in through the nominee program. So I still have concerns," she said. In response to Dixon's comments, Pillai said he trusted department staff to act "appropriately," including by seeking advice from the conflict of interest commissioner. He also expressed confidence in the assistant deputy minister's oversight of the program. "I think we have a strong process in place. We're going to be chatting very soon about some [advice] we're going to have from outside the department," he said. "I think we're in a trust building process." According to the government's operational guidance, the intake for program applications will begin with those carried over from 2024 when applications outnumbered the Yukon's allocation for that year. This year's priorities will apply to those applications. The expression of interest phase will follow. If there are more expressions of interest that meet the 2025 priorities than there are available nominations, the department will invite those with the temporary measure letters of support to apply. The application spots left over will be randomly selected from qualifying expressions of interest.
