Choosing the Yukon’s top 10 stories of the year is, to a large extent, an arbitrary task. It’s a mixture of our judgment, of the stories which have attracted considerable media coverage, or those with the most significant effects on the largest number of Yukoners.

Here, then, are the Star’s top 10 stories of 2023.

1

It was the worst fire season on record in Canada – and the Yukon was not immune.

Road closures, evacuations, smoke — Yukoners dealt with them all.

“This is an unprecedented season,” Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn told a late July press conference.

But no lives were lost and no communities burned as a result of Yukon wildfires – despite an extra-long fire season that at times seemed to be spinning out of control.

“It was a busy season for Yukon, but we certainly didn’t experience the level of severe or catastrophic fires that they did elsewhere,” Lisa Walker, Yukon Wildland Fire Management’s director, told the Star on Dec. 21.

Just as things came to a head on Aug. 10 – and people from Mayo and Old Crow were filling hotels in Whitehorse after evacuating their homes – the rain came and the temperatures cooled.

By the end of the year, 222 wildfires had burned 394,449 hectares of Yukon wildland.

Most of that area was in the wilderness and never even had firefighters attempt to stop the fires or put them out.

The most threatening blazes came within five kilometres of Mayo, and, in July, burned a significant chunk of forest in the Ibex Valley west of Whitehorse.

On Dec. 19, the Yukon Fire Marshal’s office confirmed that two people using firearms and an explosive target had ignited the Ibex Valley blaze on the hot, dry evening of July 8.

Fires near Mayo also resulted in the evacuation of Victoria Gold’s Eagle Mine – twice.

With so many fires burning in the Yukon and across Canada throughout the spring, summer and fall, the Yukon’s wildland firefighters definitely put in the work this year.

When other territories and provinces were in need, they went to help. When the Yukon was in need, support flew in from Outside.

Ultimately, the Yukon fared better than its southern neighbours in B.C. and eastern neighbours in the N.W.T. due to a mixture of luck and forest ecology.

The Yukon’s boreal forest is well-adapted to fire. Unlike many places in Canada, that balance hasn’t been altered by development in most of the territory — at least, not yet.

2

Ranj Pillai was sworn in as the Yukon’s 10th premier on Jan. 14. He took the oath of office along with members of his new cabinet in the foyer of the Jim Smith Building.

“I’m truly honoured to be standing here this afternoon,” said Pillai, who had served as a minister of several portfolios under former premier Sandy Silver.

“As premier, I’m dedicated to making sure that the work government does is done with all Yukoners in mind.

“I have heard from you about where my priorities should be,” he told the audience.

Silver had announced in September 2022 he would step down from the post. No one opposed Pillai’s bid to become Silver’s successor by the January candidates’ deadline.

On Jan. 31, the Liberal government and the NDP announced they had signed a second Confidence and Supply Agreement to keep the minority regime in power until early 2025.

Its terms include free Whitehorse Transit service for all, a walk-in clinic – which opened Dec. 18 – and a ban on no-cause evictions for residential tenants.

3

Efforts using radar to scan the grounds near the location of the now-demolished Chooutla Residential School in Carcross found 15 anomalies believed to be potential grave sites of children who died at the school.

While scanning was underway, a group called Know History was simultaneously able to verify that 33 deaths occurred at the former school. It did so by combing through documents and archival records.

“As you can appreciate, this message is difficult to hear, and it will be difficult to hear for survivors across the territory,” Doris Bill of the Yukon Residential School and Missing Children Working Group said after the results of the search were presented during the summer in Whitehorse.

All of the potential graves are within a mile of the former school’s main site, with three of them very close to the where it once stood.

The rest are consistent with what could be “secret” burial sites, according to Brian Whiting, who oversaw the technical aspects of the search for the Burnaby, B.C.-based company GeoScan.

Whiting and his team searched an area of just over 37,000 square metres. The potential grave sites cover just 58 square metres.

“Truly a needle in a haystack kind of problem,” Whiting said.

Despite the large amount of area searched, Whiting said, there is more ground that could be covered. Plans for continued scanning have not yet been made, but the search is finished at least for the winter.

Chooutla was run by the Anglican Church, and was in operation between 1903 and 1969.

For most of the period following 1911, it was located in an area north of Nares Lake.

It was the first built of four residential schools in the Yukon and housed about 1,300 children during its operation, according to Know History’s Nicole Marion.

There are no firm plans to search the other Yukon school sites at this point. Members of the working hroup say the decision to undertake a search needs to come from the local First Nation community.

In the case of Chooutla, the search was conducted at the invitation of and in partnership with the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.

4

Calling the deaths “shockingly difficult,” chief coroner Heather Jones announced Nov. 10 that four fatalities in October in Whitehorse were linked to toxic illicit drug use.

“There is no obvious connection between these deaths,” the coroner’s service said.

“All these deaths involved cocaine and fentanyl. These recent deaths have taken people between the ages of 24 and 52; all young people who have left the now too-common gaps in our communities and in our families.”

Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, the latest data revealed, there were 18-substance use-related deaths in the territory, with 16 of those involving opioids.

The territory’s death toll from opioids since April 2016 had risen to 93 as of early November.

Yukon communities, said Jones, “are struggling with the grief and pain associated with the loss of life due to toxic illicit drugs.

“The hearbreak is unbearable, and these are wounds that never fully heal for those who are left behind.”

There were 25 drug-related deaths in the territory through 2022.

5

Throughout the year, major issues with the health care system in the Yukon made for alarming headlines.

The territorial government did manage to end the year on a positive note, announcing the Dec. 18 opening of the long-awaited walk-in clinic on Quartz Road, but much of the news in the preceding months was negative.

In a Nov. 4 tweet on X, Dr. Rao Tadepalli, a former Yukon Medical Association (YMA) president, wrote that health care in the Yukon is “on the downslide and crashing.”

Limitations on elective surgeries, periodic closures of rural health clinics, long wait times for diagnostic testing — these are just a few of the complaints.

“This is a pretty big deal,” said Dr. Alex Poole, a surgeon at Whitehorse General Hospital and another former YMA president, referring to the reduction of elective surgeries in January 2023.

When questioned in the legislature about these issues, Health Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee repeatedly said the cause was a “health human resource crisis,” and that the crux of the problem is difficulty hiring medical staff.

It is certainly true the government is having trouble hiring health care staff, and it is true the problem is not unique to the Yukon.

But other issues that cropped up late in the year were seemingly the result of budgetary issues.

A report by accounting firm Ernst &Young — which wasn’t made public until pressure from the official Opposition — laid bare a myriad of financial issues and shortfalls at the Yukon Hospital Corp.

Then there was the case of Dr. Leo Elwell, the local psychiatrist who said in November he was being treated unfairly by the Yukon government in terms of the lack of contracts he was being awarded.

Because of this, he threatened to leave the territory. He still might.

Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Social Services released a new health human resources strategy. It’s to invest $3.3 million in a broad recruitment strategy over the next 18 months.

“Right now, it is pretty bad on all fronts,” Tadepalli tweeted on Dec. 13.

“Let’s hope something comes out of this HR announcement. Check back in a year?”

6

Mayo RCMP and the Yukon RCMP Major Crime Unit are continuing to investigate two homicides in Mayo that took place in March.

The victims were Ben Symington, 35, and Michael Bennett, 22, both of Whitehorse.

A member of the public reported the murders to police. Mayo RCMP attended the initial call and notified the Yukon RCMP Major Crime Unit, whose members travelled to Mayo.

Nine months later, no arrests have been made, and the RCMP had no further information to share when asked about the investigation earlier this month.

The principal scene for the police investigation was a main roadway in the C-6 subdivision, on the land of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, in Mayo.

“A crime of this significance in a small community such as Mayo will have a substantial impact on the community,” police said at the time.

“We want to emphasize that we do continue to believe that there is no immediate danger to the public related to these homicides.

“We are aware of the impact of the substance use emergency on the community of Mayo, as with other Yukon communities, and are active with our partners in supporting community safety.

“All avenues of investigation are being pursued. As we work on gathering physical evidence, processing and analyzing the information we can learn from exhibits at the scene, we also want to emphasize the importance of witnesses coming forward to share any information about Mr. Symington and Mr. Bennett.”

These were the territory’s second and third homicides of 2023.

Aaron Smarch, 35, of Carcross, was murdered on Feb. 2 in downtown Whitehorse.

Mayo Mayor Trevor Ellis reiterated that his village has seen the whole cycle – people’s lives being broken apart by drugs, from people not being able to hold down jobs, to people not caring for their kids as they should, to people dying from overdoses and suicide.

“We have seen all sides of it,” he told the Star of the drug problem in Mayo.

Mayo, said Ellis, is not any different than any other community.

“This is not an easy topic. Mayo is not alone in this country.”

7

When the Minto Mine abruptly ceased operations in May, almost 200 employees, dozens of contractors, the Yukon government and the Selkirk First Nation were all left unpaid.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. The spring freshet was approaching its peak, and without active water treatment, the surrounding environment was on the verge of being inundated with contaminated water from an overflowing tailings pond.

Thankfully, the Yukon government was able to step in. With the help of a contractor, the site was secured and water treatment continued, averting disaster.

“The public expects that we protect the environment,” Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker said in July.

Yukoners will not be “very tolerant” of mining if they are forced to pay for environmental protection every time a mine is abandoned, he added.

There was a $75.2-million security fund collected from Minto’s owners while the mine was operational, and this fund is meant to pay for closure and reclamation work.

Whether it’s ultimately enough is yet to be seen. At the time of the shutdown, the government was trying to collect about $18 million more from owner Minto Metals to top up this fund.

As far as the company’s responsibilities are concerned, in the week after the abandonment, there was suddenly no company left to hold responsible. The entire board of directors had resigned – and had become very hard to get a hold of.

Through a settlement in B.C. Supreme Court, the Selkirk First Nation was eventually able to get paid royalties owed to it by the company. The mine is located on Selkirk First Nation land.

But contractors, ex-employees and other creditors say they’re still owed about $66 million.

The mine is now in receivership, and PricewaterhouseCoopers is working on finding a buyer. It remains to be seen if this will happen – and even if it does, if those owed money will get paid.

8

Another landslide closed Robert Service Way in early April.

The major artery, still commonly referred to as the South Access Road, was expected to be closed for the foreseeable future when the slide occurred.

There were no reports of any injuries, and nobody was caught in the cascading rocks and mud.

The city announced on Facebook that its geotechnical engineers believed more slides would occur in the coming days.

A major mudslide also occurred along Robert Service Way on April 30, 2022, forcing the closure of the road until mid-June. It was estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 cubic metres of material had come down.

It cost about $3 million to clean up last year’s slide, a figure which included the installation of a barrier along Robert Service Way at the bottom of the landslide.

The April 2023 slide occurred in the same area as last year’s, but it just missed the barriers and spilled onto the roadway.

The 2022 slide also affected the Millennium Trail before spilling out over the Yukon River ice.

Both closures had huge impacts on morning and afternoon commuter traffic patterns, affecting Two Mile Hill, Second Avenue and Quartz Road.

City engineer Taylor Eshpeter explained the city had developed a danger assessment scale for the likelihood of further slides, with zero meaning the road can be opened.

Level one would allow for some one-lane traffic at certain times of the day when the risks are lower, such as in the mornings, before it warms up.

Level two is a complete closure, as the risks of a slide are high, he said.

In addition to the monitoring equipment crews have installed, Eshpeter said, they planned to set up a radar-based, slope scanner monitoring system to provide real-time information regarding escarpment movements.

9

A home on Bates Crescent in Riverdale exploded early the morning of Nov. 14.

As the year ends, no one — except perhaps the RCMP and the Whitehorse Fire Department — knows why it happened – though the rumours continue to swirl.

It happened at about 5:30 a.m., and neighbours mistakenly thought it was an earthquake.

Power was knocked out to about 40 homes by what an ATCO Electric Yukon spokesperson said was “flying debris.”

Mayor Laura Cabott said a dozen homes were damaged, some badly, and called it “devastating and a shock to the community.”

Veteran Whitehorse lawyer Timothy Preston’s home, the site of the explosion, was completely levelled. Next-door neighbour David Gould was killed.

Preston survived, but was hospitalized with critical injuries.

Other neighbours are still sorting out the damages.

“The structural integrity of the house we’re not sure about at this time — a lot of the doors won’t close, a lot of the walls are slanted,” Michael McIsaac, who lives across the street from what once was the Preston home, said on the morning of the explosion.

The RCMP have said a criminal investigation is underway – but won’t provide any more details.

“For privacy and operational reasons, the RCMP will not comment further on the ongoing investigation,” reads a Nov. 17 news release from the police.

Speculation is the only thing left at this point for a community that continues to wonder what sparked the blast.

10

A “cylindrical object” described as “potentially similar” to a Chinese air balloon was shot down over central Yukon on Feb. 11.

To this day, the remains of the object lay undetected – likely under layers of snow and ice – in the rugged terrain between Mayo and Dawson City.

Then-Defence Minister Anita Anand said it resembled one that had been shot down off the coast of South Carolina a week earlier.

The object, flying at 12,000 metres (40,000 feet), had first been detected over Alaska on Feb. 10, at which point two U.S. F-22 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept, identify and track it.

After it passed into Yukon airspace, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling it “a reasonable threat to civilian aircraft,” authorized one of the U.S. jets to shoot it down.

Coincidentally, Trudeau was in Whitehorse to attend a Feb. 12 Liberal party fundraiser.

The search conducted by the Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP was called off on Feb. 17.

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade said the object may have been a small hobby balloon it had been tracking as it circumnavigated Earth.

It had last transmitted its location to the club on Feb. 10, when it had been hovering at about 12,000 metres off the west coast of Alaska.

The club had estimated its balloon would be flying over central Yukon on Feb. 11 – the same day and location the celebrated balloon was shot down.