Millions of dollars will be coming into the territory from Ottawa for projects ranging from mapping to log home construction.

Indian Affairs and Northern Development Minister Chuck Strahl made the announcement Monday in Whitehorse, during his first visit in that portfolio.

Strahl was here for an intergovernmental forum between the territorial government and first nation leaders.

During a Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Strahl made five funding announcements, including:

$1.2 million going to the Yukon government for the Windy-McKinley mapping project, designed to enhance mineral exploration in the western part of the territory;

$1.1 million to improve safety at the Whitehorse International Airport by purchasing an aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle, new safety equipment and upgrading the fire hall;

$675,000 for the Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) log home construction skills project and a two-day first nation mining symposium;

$750,000 for the Yukon Bureau of Statistics to conduct two community surveys to help understand and improve employment and economic development opportunities; and

$192,894 for the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce to improve client service and business development.

Of the $675,000 the CYFN will receive from Ottawa, a total of $654,348 will go toward the construction project, with $20,500 going to the mining symposium.

'Developing a trained workforce to take greater advantage of opportunities in the housing, mining and other sectors of the economy is a top priority of Yukon first nations,' Andy Carvill, the CYFN's grand chief, said in a statement.

'To achieve this, however, we need assistance from the federal government, so we welcome these two contributions because they will assist us to build capacity and create opportunity at the community level.'

Under the construction project, three participants from each of the territory's 14 first nations will take an industrial safety course at Yukon College, with each participant then working with a mentor to learn about log home building.

The homes built will be deconstructed at the end of the course and taken to each of the first nations to be reconstructed.

Meanwhile, both first nation and industry interests and that relationship will be the subjects at the mining symposium.

The mapping project being done by the Yukon government is a multi-year initiative designed to provide information on subsurface geology and mineral potential in the Stevenson area, which sits northeast of the Alaska Highway between the Yukon and Alaska.

The survey on employment will rotate among the territory's communities over the next two years, looking at businesses and labour demand. It's designed to assist with economic development initiatives.

'Our government understands that to strengthen our sovereignty in the North, we must be committed to improving northern prosperity and exploring the North's vast opportunities,' Strahl said.