The purpose of the Clean Energy Act is to legislate our greenhouse gas commitments, provide the Government of Yukon with the regulatory tools needed to meet those greenhouse gas commitments, and ensure long-term climate change accountability through public reporting.

How we got here?

The Government of Yukon conducted extensive public engagements in developing Our Clean Future: a Yukon strategy for climate change, energy and a green economy.

Our Clean Future’s Commitment L1 states the government will create a Clean Energy Act that “legislates our greenhouse gas reduction targets and our commitments to energy efficiency and demand-side management to hold the Government of Yukon accountable”. 

We are proposing the legislative framework for the Clean Energy Act and possible ways of implementing the existing commitments being legislated.

The Government of Yukon already completed extensive public engagements on the broad topics around clean energy during the development of Our Clean Future. This engagement is specifically focused on how to implement the existing commitments being legislated.

New zoning for the Lone Tree Development Area will regulate what can be built and where. We’re gathering input on the proposed zoning. The input we receive will help inform the development of new regulations.

Read the discussion document

The purpose of this engagement is to gather feedback on how to best implement a ban on single-use plastic and paper shopping bags.

The Government of Yukon works with the Government of Northwest Territories to manage shared waters. We are updating our bilateral water management agreement for the Peel and Mackenzie Delta watersheds. We are also establishing a new bilateral water management agreement for the Liard River watershed. The goal of these agreements is to modernize standards for transboundary water management and better protect aquatic ecosystem health in the Mackenzie River basin.

The bilateral water management agreements also align with the Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan. They maintain the ecological integrity of aquatic ecosystems, encourage management of water resources in a sustainable manner, and prevent degradation of water in the territory.

These agreements support the Government of Yukon’s collaborative work with First Nations and other jurisdictions to improve environmental management and better manage the ecological needs of watersheds. We are simultaneously conducting targeted consultation with First Nations, who are essential to the development and implementation of bilateral water management agreements.

This is an opportunity for the general public to review these agreements and provide any input, they should have. It is important to note that these agreements are quite technical in nature.

Working together, the departments of Tourism and Culture, Economic Development, and Education are developing the Creative and Cultural Industries Strategy. Our goal is to develop a multi-year, action-focused strategy, that will guide government’s future programs and supports to advance the creative and cultural industries sector.

To help ensure the strategy will be effective and relevant, we have engaged with individuals and organizations who work in the creative and cultural industries on a number of occasions. Input gathered has helped develop a strategy to support, strengthen and sustain a vibrant creative and cultural industries sector in Yukon.

The strategy also actively considers diversity and inclusivity to ensure that barriers to entering and participating successfully in these industries are identified and addressed.

A working definition of creative and cultural industries is helpful in understanding the scope of this project. Although they are quite diverse, they are essentially all of those industries which generate cultural, artistic or heritage products and content for consumers and marketplaces. This includes writing and publishing, sound recording, visual and applied arts, crafting, film and interactive media, photography, live performance, heritage and libraries. It also includes the labour force and institutions required to support them.

Privacy Notice:

Personal information is being collected under the authority of section 29(c) of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, for the purpose of participating in the public engagement for the development of a Creative and Cultural Industries Strategy. Do not  include any personally identifiable information in your response. Any personal information inadvertently provided (email address, etc.) will not be shared.

By providing your views or opinions on the document Creative Potential: Advancing Yukon’s Creative Economy, you understand and agree that this information will be shared with the participating Government of Yukon departments (Tourism and Culture, Economic Development, Education and the Women’s Directorate) and that they may be shared publicly to support the actions of the strategy.

For further information contact the Communications Analyst at 867-332-3670, toll free, within Yukon 1-800-661-0408, ext. 8383, at [email protected], in person at 100 Hanson Street, Whitehorse, Yukon or in writing to Box 2703 (L-1), Whitehorse, YT Y1A 2C6.

The purpose of this engagement is to gather feedback on proposed changes to Yukon’s sound recording fund. These changes are intended to modernize the fund to better serve the needs of Yukon’s music industry.

The Department of Education accepted recommendations from The Auditor General of Canada to conduct a full review of the services and supports for inclusive education. The recommendation is outlined in the Auditor General’s report, Kindergarten Through Grade 12 Education in Yukon, published on June 18, 2019.

Dr. Nikki Yee, an expert in the field Special Education, is conducting this review. Dr. Yee is a PhD in Special Education from the University of BC and has 12 years of diverse teaching experience from Kindergarten through Grade 12 to university, including supporting special education in schools.

Dr. Yee is reviewing the department’s current practices, procedures and legislated responsibilities, scanning other jurisdictions and identifying barriers and opportunities by gathering experiences and perspectives from across the education system.

Watch this video from Dr. Yee about the review.

Dr. Yee is collecting feedback through focus groups and the online tool from:

• parents/guardians;
• students;
• teachers;
• school staff; school councils;
• Yukon First Nations; and other education partners.

Dr. Yee is gathering experiences with:

• the Department of Education’s services;
• supports for students with special needs;
• and specific supports that students need to be successful at school.

Dr. Yee started the review in February 2020 with initial meetings and reviewing current practices, procedures and legislated responsibilities. It was extended across the 2020–21 school year due to COVID-19 and to provide more time and opportunity to safely gather perspectives and experiences across the education system.

Read the interim report from Dr. Yee published in September 2020 on work completed so far on the review.

There is currently no framework in place to guide the management of activities in wetlands across Yukon. This has created uncertainty for land managers, industry, and project assessors when dealing with development in wetlands.

As part of the implementation of the Yukon Water Strategy, the Government of Yukon has developed a policy for managing Yukon wetlands, including support for wetland inventory and monitoring, in partnership with other governments, stakeholders and the public.

The Government of Yukon invited more than 50 governments and organizations to work with us to develop this policy, including:

• First Nations and transboundary Indigenous groups,
• municipal and federal governments;
• boards and councils;
• non-governmental organizations; and
• industry associations.

We used an inclusive, roundtable approach where people could hear others’ perspectives and we could work collaboratively to build this draft policy. Three themes emerged from this stage of engagement. 

View the process since 2017. 

We now want your feedback on the draft policy.

How we got here

Before we started the policy development process, we reached out to partners to hear:

• What is working well and what is challenging with regard to wetlands;
• Hopes for a wetland policy; and
• Hopes for the collaborative policy process.

Pre-engagement report 

Roundtable 1

At the 1^st roundtable meeting, we shared our hopes for the wetland policy while we visited a viewpoint over the MacIntyre wetlands.

The 1^st roundtable meeting focused on:

• reaching a common understanding of the policy development process;
• building a foundation of knowledge about wetlands; and
• determining the scope of policy.

Roundtable 1 report 

Roundtable 2

We based the 2^nd roundtable on requests made by partners at or following the 1^st roundtable.

At the meeting, the partners expressed that the policy will need to:

• provide a vision for the future and for clear management;
• consider matters such as climate change; and
• include diverse knowledge from scientific, traditional and local sources.

The roundtable provided direction for a group of volunteers from the roundtable (called the drafting group) to draft a policy outline.

Roundtable 2 report 

Roundtable 3

The focus of this meeting was to discuss policy goals and potential policy options stemming from those goals.

The roundtable reviewed the background and context sections of the policy and gave direction for the voluntary drafting group to draft a policy statement based on the roundtable discussions with themes of:

• recognizing the value of wetlands;
• providing increased clarity on conservation and development goals;
• recognizing and aligning with First Nations rights;
• providing for increased information and knowledge; and
• providing direction for effective implementation.

Roundtable 3 report 

Roundtable 4

Members of the volunteer drafting group gave an overview of their work on the draft policy sections and the policy’s key elements.

The key elements include:

• the draft policy goal;
• guiding principles; and
• policy objectives.

Partners discussed the key elements in depth throughout the roundtable.

Roundtable 4 report 

Roundtable 4 to now

Since the last roundtable met in 2019, the Government of Yukon has been considering how to align the policy with other similar initiatives such as wetland plans by the Yukon Water Board and adapt to the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The difficulty of continuing to make steady progress on the policy during the pandemic meant we had to adjust our approach. Instead of meeting with all our partners in a large roundtable format like we were before, we developed and sent a revised draft of the policy to partners for their review and input.

We’re grateful for the time and effort that our partners have put into the draft policy so far. The work of the roundtables continues to form the backbone of the draft policy we are working on. 

A tri-government Steering Committee (Carcross/Tagish First Nation, the Government of Canada and the Government of Yukon) has invested over five years working together with the Carcross/Tagish Renewable Resources Council, the Tagish Local Advisory Council and the Tagish River community to recommend a draft management plan, including seven key areas of recommendation. They now invite the public to learn about the draft plan and recommendations to sustain this area, as laid out in the Carcross/Tagish First Nation Final Agreement.

The Government of Yukon is modernizing its Economic Immigration Strategy to guide policy and program development over the next decade, and to ensure immigration programming continues to be responsive to the needs of Yukon’s economy. The strategy will replace the existing document that expired in 2019.

In drafting the next strategy, Yukon has an opportunity to position itself as a desirable destination for settlement for newcomers, and to strategically target newcomers most likely to enhance the territory’s economy, diversity and social fabric. The strategy will cover existing programs like the popular Yukon Nominee Program and Business Nominee Program, along with potential new programs to assist Yukon employers and continue to grow the economy with the help of immigration. The strategy applies only to economic immigration, and does not address non-economic immigration programming.