We are hoping to launch our new website in April 2023. In the meantime, we will continue to use this site to post information, though formatting may not always be correct. If you can't find what you're looking for, please contact us and ask.

Thankyou for your understanding.

After many years at our Jarvis street location in downtown Whitehorse, the Yukon Land Use Planning Council office has moved.

You can now find us in the Nuvo building, also downtown and only a block away from the old office:

Suite 302 - 309 Strickland Street
Whitehorse, YT
Y1A 2J9

Please note that our phone number will remain the same.

“Yesterday”: Summer 2021 to March 2022 YLUPC Progress

• Continued work with Yukon Forum Leads Committee to identify measures for advancing regional land use planning in Yukon
• Conferred with Teslin Tlingit Council and Yukon Government regarding commencement of Teslin Regional Land Use Planning

The Council is currently exploring ways to meaningfully weave Indigenous planning concepts and traditional knowledge throughout regional land use planning processes. This work strives to uphold the objectives of Chapter 11 “recognizing and promoting the cultural values of Yukon First Nations” and “Utilizing the knowledge and experience of Yukon First Nations to achieve effective land use planning.”

In support of this effort, the Council contracted Planner Gillian McKee to do a literary review of the use of traditional knowledge in northern regional land use plans. The nine plans examined were:

The Council is currently creating an Indigenous Planning and Traditional Knowledge committee to advise the Council as it explores ways to meaningfully weave Indigenous planning concepts and traditional knowledge throughout regional land use planning processes. 

This work strives to uphold the objectives of Chapter 11 recognizing and promoting the cultural values of Yukon First Nations and utilizing the knowledge and experience of Yukon First nations to achieve effective land use planning. 

Stay tuned for further information as the committee begins its work.

In 2017, the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, the Grand Chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations, and Chiefs of the self-governing Yukon First Nations signed a Mining Memorandum of Understanding.  The Mining MOU commits the Parties to work collaboratively to improve the management of placer and quartz mining in the Yukon and an independent panel was created to recommend these improvements.  The Yukon Land Use Planning Council submitted a letter and a series of recommendations that focussed upon land use planning, First Nation relations, cumulative effects and climate change (see letter here).

The proceedings and the summary the 2019 Total Impact cumulative effects workshop are available.

The members of the Yukon Land Use Planning Council held two sessions in late 2017 to discuss the strategic direction for the organization. These sessions were facillitated by Cambio Consulting who also wrote this plan.

The planning experience to date has illustrated a number of challenges and opportunities for attention at all levels of the planning process:

• Foundations around roles, responsibilities and relationships;
• Regional planning commission operations; and
• Post-planning implementation processes

This plan is intended as high-level strategic document that charts a course for YLUPC to work with its partners to address these challenges over the next three years.

Click here to download the plan.

The North Yukon Regional Land Use Plan was approved in 2009, making it Yukon's first (and only) regional plan to be approved under the Umbrella Final Agreement. Since then, some parts of the plan have been implemented, while others are still in progress. In recent months, we have been requested by the Plan's Parties (Vuntut Gwitchin and Yukon Governments) to assist by providing financial and staff resources to some implementation projects as well as attend implementation meetings between the Parties. Currently, we are involved in two projects that may serve as templates for other planning regions:

1. Determining how best to track human disturbances in Eagle Plains. See these documents.
2. Analysing field data on disturbance and recovery dynamics in Eagle Plains

With around 230 attendees from across Canada and beyond, 60 presentations, 19 organised talks and countless informal discussions, the Northern Land Use Planning Conference was a resounding success. The proceedings are available here. Almost all of the presentations are in our document repository. They are also found, for now, on the conference website.