Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star
Published by The Whitehorse Star on December 30, 2020.
Dateline: May 16, 2024.
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 2020.
1
For nine long months of 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic negatively distorts life for virtually every Yukoner in ways they have never witnessed – and never could have imagined. Due to the space required to review the numerous components and impacts of the crisis, the #1 story of the year is summarized at length on pages 6 and 7.
3
The Yukon Medical Association on Aug. 18 criticizes Health and Social Services Minister Pauline Frost for announcing, several days earlier, her blanket acceptance of Putting People First, a major health care report without first consulting doctors. The report, issued in May by an independent review panel, makes 76 recommendations for sweeping, unprecedented changes to the fundamentals of the territory's health care system. It describes the system as fragmented and lacking a long-term public health lens. The report calls for establishing a network of polyclinics and changing the payment structure for doctors, as many Yukoners feel they're rushed through their doctor's offices, for instance. It also calls for more virtual care, expanding vaccine programming, enhancing First Nations programming and providing fully funded early childhood education.
But Frost's acceptance of the 207-page report is called pre-emptive by the medical association. Maintaining a strong relationship between the association and the government requires trust and open communications between both sides, the association insists.
3
Premier Sandy Silver and two of his cabinet ministers on Sept. 14 unveil their government's strategy to battle climate change. It lays out 131 specific actions to undertake over the next 10 years at a cost of $500 million. The strategy, for instance, calls for a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by 2030. It creates a $10,000 rebate to Yukoners who purchase electric vehicles.
The strategy comes almost a year after MLAs had unanimously voted in October 2019 to declare a climate change emergency, a month after the City of Whitehorse made a similar declaration.
The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation of Old Crow in May 2019 became the first Yukon First Nation to make an emergency declaration. But all 14 Yukon First Nations come together in February 2020 to pass their own declaration of a climate change emergency, in partnership with the Council of Yukon First Nations and the national Assembly of First Nations.
4
The Yukon government announces Oct. 6 it's moving to shorten governing mandates from five years to four years between elections and adopting fixed voting dates. The changes to the federal Yukon Act to create the five-year mandates had been implemented under a previous Yukon Party government.
Under the legislation, which is later approved by MLAs, a general election will be held Nov. 3, 2025 and every four years afterward. The 2021 election, which has no fixed date, is not affected by the amendments to the Elections Act.
5
After hearing nine days of testimony from 20 witnesses, the inquest into the 2013 death of 29-year-old Cynthia Blackjack of Carmacks concludes on Jan. 31 the death was accidental. The jury deliberates for more than six hours before rendering its decision and issuing several recommendations aimed at improving community health services - including prioritizing the hiring of a nurse practitioner for the Carmacks community health centre.
The jury heard challenges to the quality and level of service provided by nurses at the health centre, and suggestions Blackjack should have been medevaced to Whitehorse sooner than she was. There were calls from the young woman's family to investigate whether systemic racism played a part in her death. But there was also testimony by a number of health professionals who said everything that could be done was done for the acutely ill Blackjack. She died after going into cardiac arrest on the medevac flight shortly before landing in Whitehorse. The cause of death was determined to be acute liver failure, likely brought on by acetaminophen - Tylenol - poisoning, the jury heard.
6
With "deep sadness," chief coroner Heather Jones announces 13 Yukoners have died from drug overdoses since January, a dramatic increase. Many of the victims were in their 20s and 30s. Seven deaths occurred in Whitehorse. Eight were the result of a mixture of opioids and toxic amounts of fentanyl.
Public health officials tell a news conference the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be compounding a previous opioids problem.
A harm reduction education program begins, and the government announces plans to examine the idea of a supervised consumption site and the introduction of a safe supply chain.
7
The territory will no longer change its clocks twice a year, the government announces March 4. When other jurisdictions end daylight saving time for the year, the Yukon retains it. A public survey on the issue had showed 93 per cent of respondents wanted the seasonal time changes to stop. More than 4,800 organizations and individuals responded to the online-only survey.
8
The Yukon Party chooses Currie Dixon as its new leader on May 23. He defeats veteran MLA Brad Cathers 752 votes to 682. Longtime party loyalist Linda Benoit secures 160 votes.
Stacey Hassard had led the party since November 2016, when then-premier Darrell Pasloski had lost his seat in that year's election defeat.
Dixon vows to steer the party with continued focus on its foundational values: fiscal conservatism, low taxes, and support for the private sector and the hunting and angling communities.
9
In what's called "an incredible milestone," the Yukon government formally responds to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-spirit+ crisis.
The Yukon Advisory Committee organizes a moving, morning-long ceremony for Dec. 10 for its report, which outlines numerous action items. They include a range of research programs, and ideas to build upon existing programs that discourage violence against others. "This is a profound day," says Premier Sandy Silver. "It is an incredible milestone for our government and all Yukoners. This crisis has gone on far too long."
10
Instead of following the news, the weather becomes the news several times throughout 2020. Early January kicks off the year with a prolonged cold snap across the Yukon, resulting in new records for power consumption. While no record low temperatures are recorded, the thermometer plunges to -49 C in Mayo and well below -30 for much of the territory. Nights well below -40 plague residents living on the outskirts of Whitehorse
After a wet summer that disappoints outdoors enthusiasts but douses the wildfire season, Yukoners face more weather challenges in late 2020.
The initial days of November see more than 40 centimetres of snow fall across the southern part of the territory, setting two days of snowfall records. City and Yukon government road crews are kept hopping around the clock for several days to clear main arteries and transit routes, even before getting to the sidestreets. Many driveways are impassable without a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
A month later, an "atmospheric river" brings record precipitation and warmth to the territory and the Alaskan Panhandle. Crews who were dealing with a record snowfall just a month earlier now face excessive water in the streets while black ice closes many of the main highways.
Temperature records melt across the south. The 8.4 degrees in Faro, for instance, eclipses the previous record high of 1.1.
Landslides amid heavy rains in Haines, Alaska claim the lives of two individuals, one of whom had launched a transportation business between Whitehorse and Haines.
