Skip to content

Yukon cadet facility still a go

Plans for a new year-round cadet facility in Whitehorse will still go ahead under the new federal government, Yukon’s senator has confirmed.

Plans for a new year-round cadet facility in Whitehorse will still go ahead under the new federal government, Yukon’s senator has confirmed.

Former Conservative minister Jason Kenney came to Whitehorse last year amid the federal election to promise the winterized facility if the Conservatives were re-elected.

Even though that didn’t happen, the new building will still go ahead, Sen. Dan Lang said yesterday.

It’s something multiple levels of government have been working on since 2012, he said. Including his office, former Yukon MP Ryan Leef and the territorial government.

Lang said his understanding is that planning for the facility will happen this year with construction in 2017.

No location has been settled on for the 500-square-metre facility, which is tentatively slated to cost up to $5 million.

Cadets, Rangers or the RCMP could use the facility for drills, he said.

Lang said he hopes the building will go on the same site as the current cadet facility.

Boyle Barracks is a 180-hectare site 20 kilometres south of Whitehorse, designed for summer training only.

Because of a lack of storage space, training equipment is currently kept in a sea can. The new facility will have secure storage.

Whitehorse has two cadet corps, with a total of about 60 young Canadians aged 12 to 18.

In the winter the cadets parade in Whitehorse Elementary School.

During the last federal election then-prime minister Stephen Harper also promised a new Canadian Armed Forces reserve unit in Yukon.

Lang said doesn’t know if that is something the new government plans to follow through with.