The impact of a bill that MLAs passed unanimously in the Yukon Legislative Assembly is that doctors won’t need to spend as much time negotiating their contracts so they can spend more time caring for patients, according to Yukon NDP Leader Kate White, who sponsored the bill.
The bill recognizes the Yukon Medical Association (YMA) as the sole bargaining agent for physicians and creates an arbitration process to resolve disputes arising from those deals.
It means representational rights for doctors, with the YMA speaking on behalf of doctors, whether it’s a standard contract or fee-for-service deal, per White.
“I'm ecstatic,” White said by phone on April 22.
“A lot of the silos that exist right now will get removed, so that will help in the recruitment and retention of medical professionals — physicians — in the Yukon, which will, of course, bring up the ability for folks here to get a family doctor.”
Dr. Derek Bryant, the YMA president, told the News by phone on April 22 the final product was the result of a collaborative effort from all three territorial parties with seats in the legislative assembly.
“I thought it was really impressive leadership,” Bryant said.
“I just think that that's something that should be recognized in our increasingly divided and political world.”
Bryant said the Yukon NDP was approached by some YMA members regarding representational rights, so the New Democrats proposed to YMA to set up a meeting. At that meeting, White suggested creating legislation and she offered to support YMA through the development of a bill.
Eventually, the NDP and the YMA connected with all three territorial parties including Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee who, Bryant acknowledged, provided valuable edits and feedback.
By phone on April 22, McPhee said that this small aspect fits into the governing Yukon Liberal Party’s much broader long-term plan for increasing the proportion of doctors in the territory. She hopes it will succeed in attracting doctors to the Yukon.
McPhee, who is also Justice minister, personally put a lot of work into the legislation after she heard the NDP had support from the Yukon Party. Her teams in the departments of Justice and Health and Social Services worked late nights and weekends to improve what came their way.
“I was very concerned that ultimately, if we didn't do this work, that a bill would be passed that would really be not achieving what the YMA said they wanted, and certainly not benefit Yukoners generally, or Health and Social Services,” she said.
For example, she said an earlier draft failed to contain a commencement date.
McPhee said the incoming legislation will be reviewed for potential legal issues that will ultimately arise, and consequential amendments will be made.
She wonders how the new legislation will jive with the hospital and health authority acts, as well as its financial impact on the government.
“Nobody's ever going to get paid less,” she said.
“We look forward to there being consistency in the contracts for doctors. I should mention, of course, that we are currently in negotiations with the YMA for the fee-for-service contracts, or the fee-for-service amounts, I should say, in the memorandum of understanding that exists between the YMA and doctors who are paid by fee for service.”
As noted in a March 17, 2025, release from the Yukon government, the government and YMA need to negotiate a new memorandum of understanding. The current deal remains in effect until a new agreement is negotiated and ratified.
In the House on April 16, McPhee asked about potential conflict between individual physicians and the YMA as a result of the new legislation.
White said the YMA will “follow the desires of the majority of members. They act democratically just like a government.”
While the bill sets out that physicians can choose to be a member of the YMA, all practising doctors will have to pay a fee.
“I think the hope and expectation is that specialists and locums will choose to sign on, but regardless, they will still be contributing to the collective there,” White said.
Of the 123 doctors practising in the territory, 120 of them are YMA members, per White.
White admitted she didn’t speak with out-of-territory doctors or medical students or directly consult the broader YMA membership in coming up with the bill.
The bill came about in February 2025 when the YMA brought forward its concerns to White, and they gathered letters of support from medical associations across the country, she said.
McPhee noted legislators were two weeks into the spring sitting when they learned a private members’ bill along these lines was coming down the pike.
McPhee said talk around representational rights originally came up in 2021 — in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. McPhee said she personally told the YMA that she supports the concept of representational rights in January 2025.
White said that, from YMA’s perspective, it didn’t feel like things were moving forward with the Liberal government.
McPhee has indicated her teams have put hours of work into making this legislation work.
“Since learning of the bill, we have met with the Yukon Medical Association on several occasions and provided preliminary written feedback on two occasions and had many, many phone calls. We all worked together to advance this shared goal and support the Yukon Medical Association and physicians to move in this direction,” McPhee said.
“We voted unanimously in this House back in March that the government should prioritize recruitment and retention of physicians and work with the Yukon Medical Association to reduce administrative burdens and cut red tape. That work remains our focus and our top priority.”
McPhee pointed out that White posted to Facebook on March 31 claiming that she had to “convince” the Yukon Liberal Party and Yukon Party to support her legislation.
White told the legislature she hadn’t gotten an indication or formal commitment from the government side until a letter of support on April 4.
The bill still needs to receive assent before it comes into force on Jan. 1, 2026.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
