Now that the North Yukon Regional Land Use Plan has been approved, it is time to put it into action. The Parties to this plan, the Yukon Government and the government of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, have agreed on some plan implementation tasks. The Umbrella Final Agreement (section 12.7.1) and the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Act (section 44.1) specify that planning commissions check the conformity of proposed projects to the plan. However, because the North Yukon Planning Commission is no longer maintained, the staff of the Yukon Land Use Planning Council (YLUPC) will provide an opinion as a third party as to whether projects are consistent with the plan. Here's how it works:

When the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Designated Office seeks views and information from the public and stakeholders about a proposed project, it determines if the project will fall within the North Yukon Planning Region. If so, it sends the YLUPC a letter requesting an opinion. YLUPC staff then visit YESAB's online registry (YOR) to read the project's specifications. Staff then fill in a form that indicates as a third party, whether or not a project would be consistent with the plan, and what practices and strategies recommended in the plan would be the most relevant. Completed YLUPC consistency opinions are listed below, using YESAB's project numbering system:

Evaluation of landscape disturbance indicators

Part of the thrid party consistency opinion includes the comparison between projected landscape disturbance indicators for each of the Landscape Management Units (LMUs) potentially affected by the project and the cautionary and critical levels assigned to each LMU. Two indicators are assessed: new surface disturbance (or 'footprint'), and new linear disturbance. To do this, the YLUPC need an estimate of the current amount of each disturbance indicator. Unfortunately, these estimates have not yet been determined by the Yukon Government, but are expected to be completed in the coming years. Until these estimates are published, the YLUPC usually cannot determine if a proposal will result in excessive landscape disturbance or not. As a result, many opinions will consist of a list of relevant mitigative strategies and practices. Other, more extensive, proposals may require examination of the Commission's estimated disturbance levels, together with the fire history and landscape of the project. Presentations for   pdf project 2013-0067 (3.02 MB)  and   pdf project 2014-0112 (2.44 MB)  go over many of these considerations. Another pair of presentations show how this part of the Plan works, and an Eagle Plains case study that shows how it can be made to work.