Public documents show the Yukon government may sell 1,150 hectares of land for $1 to an entity of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN), based in Atlin, B.C.

According to the TRTFN, the proposed sale of land sale would be “the largest fee-simple land transfer in the history of the Yukon.”

Brad Cathers, the Yukon Party MLA for Lake Laberge, raised the potential land transfer last Wednesday in the legislature.

The documents show the government and the TRTFN establishing a new government-to-government agreement.

Within this agreement is the potential sale of  1,150 hectares of land in the Yukon. 

“This land will apparently be sold as fee-simple to a new corporate entity owned by TRTFN, and will be sold for the price of $1,” Cathers told the House.

“Further, this will require an amendment to the territorial lands act and the Lands Act to allow for raising title on a parcel this large and to waive the normal survey and other costs that a fee-simple land owner would normally be expected to pay.”

Premier Ranj Pillai said the government is really focused on continuing a positive working relationship with the TRTFN.

He said his government is committed to advancing reconciliation with First Nations, including the TRTFN. 

Cathers raised a concern that the land appears to be in the traditional territory of Yukon First Nations.

“The 1,150 hectares of land that will apparently be sold to TRTFN for $1 appears to be in the traditional territory of some Yukon First Nations,” he said.

“Have Yukon First Nations — and in particular, Carcross/Tagish First Nation and the Teslin Tlingit Council — been consulted about the Yukon government’s plans?” he asked. 

Pillai told the House last Thursday that more information needs to be shared on the topic. (The government has not issued any media releases discussing its intentions for the file.)

“I would say that the process that the member opposite is speaking to — there are more steps involved in the work that we’re doing with the First Nation,” Pillai said.

“I think that if you’re asking the questions because you want Yukoners to be aware of how we got here — so it’s important that we 
share that. 

“This is from court proceedings,” the premier added. “The leader of the official Opposition (Currie Dixon) was moving to build a campground in Atlin.

“Because of the legal proceedings that have occurred, there is a settlement that is being negotiated. What has been read in the newsletter is language from some of the work around the settlement. It has not come to conclusion,” Pillai said.

(In early 2014, while Dixon was the Environment minister in a Yukon Party government, that regime gave final approval for a 55-site campground at the north end of Atlin Lake, over TRTFN objections. A small portion of B.C.’s largest natural lake spills into the Yukon.) Pillai also said work is ongoing, and consultations with the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and private land owners in the area still need to 
be completed. 

“To get into the details of the consultation, we do have an obligation to have a consultation process with the First Nations who are affected,” the premier said Thursday.

“In this particular case, we are talking primarily about the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.”

In the Taku River Tlingit First Nation Negotiations Newsletter from winter 2023, under “Fighting for Recognition of Our Northern Territory”, the newsletter reads,  “Ever since the Yukon Territory was formally established in 1898, the Taku River Tlingits have fought an uphill battle to have our rights and title recognized in our “Northern Territory”, that portion of our traditional territory north of 60°, which represents approximately eight per cent of our whole traditional territory.

“In the meantime, the Yukon government has continued to make decisions that have alienated over 70 per cent of the lands in our Northern Territory, for example by allocating extensive areas to Yukon First Nation Treaty Settlements Lands, establishing protected areas under the Umbrella Final Agreement, as well as authorizing mineral and land tenures.”

Pillai said last Wednesday, “what I can say to the floor is that no matter what we are undertaking, I’m definitely not going to negotiate a government-to-government agreement on the floor because the member for Lake Laberge is asking me a few questions here today.

“We will sit government-to-government on the file and we will make sure that we have the best interests of all Yukoners in mind.”

As they continue to have discussions, the premier said, if a significant position is taken, they will make sure they are speaking to Yukoners, including First Nations.

“Does the member for Lake Laberge want to pull up fear?” Pillai asked.

Cathers countered that the premier should apologize for his statement. 

“Accusing another member of trying to bring up fear, much like the term ‘fearmongering’, has been ruled out of order in the assembly,” Cathers noted.

“I would ask you to direct the premier to retract the remark, apologize for it, and perhaps actually answer the question.”  

Pillai said that in his experience with Cathers dating back to the last election in 2021, the veteran Yukon Party MLA reached out to people in his constituency and told them the premier was going to steal their land. (Sandy Silver was the premier at the time.) 

“In the end, they were in fear, and that was what was trying to be instilled, and that was not true,” he said. 

“So, that is the experience that I have had with the member for Lake Laberge.”

A decade ago, the TRTFN said the site for the once-intended campground could prove part of an eventual land claim by the First Nation.

“Their position that absolutely no development can occur in that area until they have a land claim is a bit untenable,” Dixon said at the time.

“We’ve indicated to them we’re more than willing to come to the table when negotiations begin on their land claim.”

He also noted his government had vowed to construct another campground at Conrad, on Windy Arm in Tagish Lake near the Yukon-
B.C. border.

“Our campgrounds in that area tend to be very well used, and this particular site is absolutely gorgeous and it will make an absolutely wonderful campground,” Dixon said.

The government had envisioned having the campground open for the 2015 Victoria Day long weekend.

The land the government is considering transferring would surround, but not include land held by private land owners. The private lots would remain with their existing owners, and access would not be affected.