Feds sign agreements with Yukon worth $86m to improve health care

Whitehorse – Canadians deserve a health care system that provides them with timely access to health services whenever they are needed, as well as the ability to age with dignity closer to home.

Mark Holland, Canada’s Minister of Health and Tracy-Anne McPhee, Minister of Health and Social Services of the Yukon, announced three agreements to invest a total amount of nearly $86 million to improve health care access and services in the Yukon. Through the Working Together Agreement, the Government of Canada will provide more than $23.8 million to support the Yukon’s three-year action plan to deliver improvements to its health care system by 2026, including to:

• Improve access to family health services.
  • Establish a new walk-in primary care clinic in Whitehorse, which is expected to help at least 1,500 additional patients annually.
• Expand the delivery of mental health and addiction services and specialized care.
  • Introduce the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM), an approach which aims to prevent youth substance use through community-driven initiatives.
  • Support communities across the Yukon to develop their own tailored community wellness plans.
  • Expand access to opioid treatment services, including safer supply, through a new Mobile Opioid Treatment Services Clinic that will provide treatment options and basic medical care.
  • Develop land-based mental health and substance use treatment projects, in collaboration with the Council of Yukon First Nations. This will help empower Yukon First Nations to develop solutions appropriate to their own community contexts, preserve traditional knowledge, promote healing from historical injustices, and support community-driven programs.
  • Create the Yukon’s first residential managed alcohol withdrawal program in Whitehorse with a capacity of 10 beds by 2025 – 2026.
  • Ensure Whitehorse’s Supervised Consumption Site is available 365 days per year, through increased staffing that will enhance access to mental wellness and substance use supports.

Through the Aging with Dignity Agreement, the Government of Canada will provide close to $12 million to support the Yukon’s five-year action plan to help people living in the territory age with dignity close to home, with access to home care or care in a safe long-term care facility, including to:

• Support home care and client supports programs.
  • Continue to provide support for Yukon’s Home First and Complex Client Supports programs, which provide community-based services that enable Yukon residents to stay in their homes, return home from hospital, navigate the health care system, and support continuity of care.
• Expand rural community home care to the entire territory.
  • Improve rural community home care by promoting aging in place through in-home respite, rural end-of-life care. This funding will also provide access to new satellite phones for communication and access to health records in areas without cell service, ensuring safety and scheduling support for home workers.
• Hire personal support workers and nursing staff for nursing homes.
  • Support workforce stability by providing funding for additional nursing home attendants to help meet the objective of 3.5 hours of direct care per resident each day.
• Improve the quality of long-term care in the territory.
  • Enhance supports for the education, health and wellness of long-term care staff to improve infection prevention and control and adherence to long-term care standards.

Progress on these initiatives and broader commitments will be measured against targets which the Yukon will publicly report on annually.

Through these new agreements, the Yukon will improve how health information is collected, shared, used and reported to Canadians; streamline foreign credential recognition for internationally educated health professionals; facilitate the mobility of key health professionals within Canada; and fulfill shared responsibilities to uphold the Canada Health Act to protect Canadians’ access to health care that is based on need, not the ability to pay.

Recognizing the significant disparities in Indigenous People’s health outcomes, the Government of Canada and Yukon also commit to meaningfully engage and work together with Indigenous partners to support improved access to quality and culturally appropriate health care services. The Yukon’s action plans are informed by continued engagement with its Indigenous partners and recent trilateral discussions involving the federal government. All levels of government will approach health decisions in their respective jurisdictions through a lens that promotes respect and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

Finally, the Yukon will receive additional support through the renewal of the Territorial Health Investment Fund (THIF), with a new grant agreement providing $50 million over five years. With this funding, the Yukon will make investments in innovative health care projects, including to:

• Implement Putting People First, including the creation of a new health authority
  • The Putting People First report is the Yukon’s roadmap to a future high-performing, integrated health and social system that is collaborative, culturally safe, anti-racist and puts Yukoners at the centre. A core recommendation from the report is to establish a new health authority.
• Help recruit and retain health workers, and improving health workforce planning
  • These initiatives will be implementation as part of the Yukon’s Health Human Resource Strategy. A rural family medicine residency program will be developed as part of this strategy initiatives.
• Support Yukoners by continuing to improve Digital Health solutions
  • THIF funding will be used to continue advancing progress on establishing a digital health strategy for the Yukon.

The THIF supports the territories, which face higher costs compared to the provinces in delivering health care, by providing funding for crucial health care system improvements, innovative health care projects and ensuring stable funding for necessary costs, including medical travel.

The Yukon and the federal government will continue working together to improve access to health services and deliver tangible results to all patients across the territory, including responding to the needs of Indigenous and other underserved and disadvantaged populations.