'You become numb to it': Residents of Mayo, Yukon, want state of emergency declared over substance use deaths

Some Mayo, Yukon, residents want the territory to call a state of emergency over the number of recent deaths from substance abuse and suicide.

The Yukon NDP tabled a petition in the Legislature last week on behalf of Mayo residents urging the government to "declare a state of emergency ... in order to deploy an immediate response and develop ... trauma and culturally informed resources in the community to address substance abuse." 

"It's heartbreaking," Trevor Ellis, the village's mayor, told CBC News. "We've lost probably, I believe six members of our community — all young, under the age of 40."  

CBC News confirmed Yukon's chief coroner was aware of at least five deaths involving people connected to the community in 2021, noting that her office would not be aware of any others that took place outside of Yukon.

Chief Coroner Heather Jones told CBC News in an email that the coroner's service has not investigated any opioid-related deaths in Mayo, but confirmed there have been two opioid-related deaths and three other investigations related to substance use this year "which appear to be of Mayo residents."

"We currently only formally track deaths by place of death. Some of these five do not claim Mayo as residency however we are aware of the association," Jones said.    

This summer, Mayo residents started calling for action on social media — but didn't know what that should look like.

Former resident Laurie Menelon said she wanted people in Whitehorse to understand the problems in her hometown, so she started a petition calling for a state of emergency and gathered roughly 50 signatures from residents. 

"People are at the point of disassociation," said Menelon, who grew up in Mayo and recently moved to Ontario for school. "When there's so many [deaths], you become numb to it.

"We see [the petition] as a way to generate an immediate response. It can't be … 10 years down the line we figure this out." 

Kate White, Yukon's NDP leader, tabled the petition in the Legislature last Wednesday. 

White later told reporters she went to a funeral for a person who died from an overdose in the community this summer. While there, she spent time listening to the stories of that family and others affected by the crisis. 

She said it's moving that so many signed a petition for the emergency, despite the stigma that still exists around drug and alcohol use. 

"These were people. They were loved and they loved people," White said. "So those losses are real … they're loss of that potential of that person, of what they did in and for their communities."