After decades of calls from First Nations, Yukon gov’t says it’s close to finalizing a cancer strategy

Nearly two decades after the Council of Yukon First Nations released a report calling for a cancer strategy, the Yukon government says it’s close to finalizing one.

The strategy would aim to support Yukon First Nations in cancer prevention and control, and care and treatment for patients.

Last month, as Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation was mourning the loss of two citizens to cancer, Chief Russel Blackjack was left wondering why.

“We've lost quite a few citizens due to cancer and this last month we lost two members of our citizens due to cancer,” he told CBC News in December. “I don’t know the overall numbers, but dating back to 2000 most of the deaths that we’ve had here are due to cancer.”

Blackjack says he believes there is a high rate of cancer in his community and he wants the Yukon government to investigate the cause.

“A few years back [the Yukon government] did some kind of a report that compared us to other communities and others across Canada, but they never came up with any concrete suggestion as to why this was happening.”

Though the Yukon Department of Health and Social Services does have data on cancer incidence rates for the territory — the number of Yukoners that have been diagnosed with cancer — it does not collect specific data on cancer among Yukon First Nations.

“We don't have any First Nation identifiers in our data, which means we can't disaggregate or separate the data by First Nations versus not First Nations,” said Laura Hillier, with the territory's population public health evidence and evaluation branch.

Yukon First Nations have long been asking for a seat at the table when it comes to cancer control and data collection. 

In 2007, the first of a series of Council of Yukon First Nations reports called “Conversations on Cancer” highlighted the need for a cancer strategy to collect data in First Nation communities. And a 2019 report from the territory's chief medical officer of health also recommended partnering with Yukon First Nations to develop a cancer strategy. 

Now, Hillier says the Yukon Cancer Care Project team —  including Yukon health and social services workers, and First Nations citizens and health directors — are working to launch a strategy. 

She says the strategy, among other things, would aim to improve access to cancer care for First Nations communities.

However, Hillier says the team is not yet ready to collect specific data on cancer rates in Yukon First Nation communities, though it is something they're talking about.

“Where it [the data] would be housed, how it would be used are all really important considerations,” she said.