Health minister Tracy-Anne McPhee told reporters that she anticipates Connective could be operating the Whitehorse Emergency Shelter in three months, during a scrum at the legislative building on March 11.
Connective has been operating the Whitehorse emergency shelter at 405 Alexander since October of 2022, in conjunction with Council of Yukon First Nations. Their contract with YG for the operation of the shelter was recently extended by three months to the end of June 2025. Cabinet communications was not able to provide the News with information as to who will be operating the shelter come July 1.
Recently, the News received a statement with Na-Cho Nyäk Dun letterhead demanding that YG fire Connective from the shelter operations immediately. It referenced the deaths of four Indigenous women at the shelter, which triggered a coroner’s inquest in 2024, and the deaths of one of their citizens, a 21-year-old woman, at the shelter in December.
When asked why they gave Connective the three month extension as opposed to simply renewing the contract, McPhee said the programming at the shelter is “under conversation” with all partners. Extending that contract allows more time for continuing those conversations, she said.
In the legislature, McPhee said the short term extension of the contract maintains service levels, but she emphasized the extension will not maintain the status quo.
“It includes stronger oversight, operational improvements and enhanced accountability measures to improve safety and service delivery,” she said.
In a scrum with reporters, McPhee said a summit meeting with First Nations — which was first mentioned at Premier Ranj Pillai’s press conference after the Yukon Forum — will provide an opportunity to “draft a strategy for how we are improving the programs and the services that are provided at 405 Alexander.” McPhee said the summit will take place in April.
Part of those discussions will be the low-barrier model at the shelter, said McPhee. She said she wouldn’t speculate as to what perspectives those discussions will involve, but she did say that there would be room for the full array of services from low barrier to high barrier, which prohibits drugs and alcohol.
Part of the work regarding changing the model at the shelter would be finding the operator to provide that services, said McPhee. She said there’s opportunities for YG to work with other partners, and she mentioned Kwanlin Dün First Nation specifically regarding the programming they run at 405 Ogilvie Street.
“But, there, as I said earlier, Connective is a branch of the John Howard Society that's worked for more than 60 years in Canada to provide these kinds of services to this, to this community, which vulnerable community and, and they are experts in the field. Do we need improvements? Absolutely,” said McPhee.
“We always need to have improvements. We need to make sure that we are responding to the needs of the community, all the community, the citizens who go there, but also the broader community, the business and the downtown residents community, but we also, it's a, it's a fine balance, and we are going to work with our partners to get there.”
— With files from Dana Hatherly
Contact Talar Stockton at talar.stockton@yukon-news.com
