Yukon gov't to slow, possibly scrap, plans for territorial health authority

Yukon Premier Currie Dixon says his government will press pause on work for a new territory-wide health authority, and could scrap the project altogether.

Speaking after the Yukon Forum meeting with First Nations governments Friday, Dixon said the main concern is the transfer of employee pensions to the new authority, something he said could cost up to $70 million.

The former Liberal government launched plans for the authority in 2024 with the support of First Nations. But Dixon said the reorganization may not be worth the money.

"We felt that there's a significant amount of administrative overhaul that's going into that and that that money would be better invested in the front lines of our health-care system as opposed to the administrative reorganization of [the Department of] Health and Social Services into a new health authority," he said.

The creation of the authority, named Shäw Kwä'ą, was recommended in Putting People First, a wide-ranging 2020 report on the state of the Yukon's health-care system. The territory, along with Nunavut, is one of two Canadian jurisdictions without such a body.

Backers of the plan said it would, among other things, help root out systemic racism in the health-care system and improve outcomes for Indigenous patients.

Shäw Kwä'ą already has a board and chair. But unions did not like the process for setting up the authority, saying they were frozen out of the process.

Math'ieya Alatini, grand chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations, said chiefs are not happy about that decision.

"I think disappointment was an understatement," Alatini said. "When the premier shared the views of repealing the the legislation around the health authority, the chiefs made it very clear that they are in support of health authority. They really feel that the health transformation work requires the health authority to be there."

Dixon acknowledged the chiefs' displeasure and said some of the authority's work can still be salvaged.

"The cultural safety and humility strategy, the potential of an office of First Nations health, there's a whole bunch of work that can be done around rural health care recruitment and retention. All of those things we think that we can still work with First Nations on," he said.

Dixon said the government is considering a bill to repeal the enabling legislation for Shäw Kwä'ą. That bill would not be introduced in the Legislative Assembly until the fall session.

The government is proposing to return discussions about health-care reform to the Health System Transformation Advisory Committee, which served as a forerunner to the health authority.