It’s a common saying among locals that Yukon is “Canada’s best-kept secret” — referring to the territory’s pristine wilderness and welcoming culture. But it seems the secret is out.
According to Canada’s 2021 census numbers, Yukon led the country in terms of population growth since 2016, increasing by 12.1 per cent and bringing its population from 35,874 to 40,232.
The fast population growth is amplifying an already longstanding housing shortage.
Housing crisis ‘impacting everybody’
Manitoba native Marcus Schneider is currently looking to move to Yukon, where he has an opportunity to be trained as an automotive technician and mechanic and make a higher wage than in his hometown of East Selkirk in the process.
But Schneider, who’s looking for a two-bedroom apartment, is struggling to secure a place.
“I’m finding a lot of places, especially within Whitehorse, that are on the low end $2,400 a month without utilities and they go all the way up to $3,500 for some of the places with a garage,” he said.
That’s equivalent to around three quarters of his monthly wage — “and that’s not even including utilities,” he added.
In recent years, house and rent prices have exploded, bringing the median two-bedroom apartment rent to around $1,300 according to data from 2021, but many locals who spoke with CBC said the average price is actually around $2,000 right now.
Several recent online rental listings are asking in the ballpark of $2,000 for a two-bedroom apartment.
The Yukon Housing Corporation also conceded in an email statement that “the actual market rent is often higher” than the median market rent.
The average sale price of a single detached house in Whitehorse as of November 2021 was $656,800, a record high and an increase of $87,800, or 15.4 per cent over one year.
“I can say that probably within the past year … we’ve been getting more calls from people who have sort of well-paying [jobs], not just minimum wage jobs… who are also struggling to get into the housing market,” said Kate Mechan, executive director of Yukon’s Safe At Home Society, an organization that aims to end and prevent homelessness in the Yukon.
“It’s impacting everybody across the board,” added Mechan, including businesses.
Housing is indeed top of mind for many Yukoners. In all three 2021 local elections at the federal, territorial and municipal levels, it was a central issue.
A 2021 report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) found housing affordability to be a serious challenge in Yukon, particularly in Whitehorse, where “market options are out of reach for some households without financial assistance.”
In fact, the report found nearly 20 per cent of all households in Whitehorse could not secure market housing without some form of assistance in 2019.
Young people, seniors and single parents had a particularly difficult time finding adequate, suitable and affordable housing.
As of December 2021, there were 443 people on the housing wait-list in Whitehorse, according to the Yukon Housing Corporation, a stark increase from 2016 when there were 114 clients on the list.
Homelessness is also a growing issue.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic … some Yukoners have been facing housing challenges because of lost or reduced income,” the Yukon Housing Corporation said in an email statement.
Booming economy, natural beauty attracting people
Recent migrants, municipal and territorial government officials and local real estate agents all agree: abundant job opportunities, natural beauty and a great sense of community are bringing people to the Yukon.
“We see a lot of people that leave from other provinces … come here in the search of de-urbanization,” Whitehorse-based real estate agent Marc Perreault told Radio-Canada in French.
“The other reasons are … there are good job opportunities.”
Yukon has the lowest unemployment rate in Canada at 3.3 per cent, and is one of only jurisdictions in Canada where the GDP grew from 2019 to 2020.
Yukon minister of economic development Ranj Pillai told Radio-Canada that the territory’s economy has been growing over the past five years — so much so, it’s been difficult to find enough people to fill all the job opportunities.
“It’s hard to keep up with the demand,” said Laura Cabott, mayor of Whitehorse. “We need nurses, we need teachers, we need doctors, we need people working in the mining industry.”
Ranj Pillai, Yukon’s minister of economic development, speaks at a press conference in Whitehorse in September 2021. Pillai, who’s also in charge of the Yukon Housing Corporation, says the territory needs workers, but the housing supply has yet to catch up. (Jackie Hong/CBC)
Jeremy Hetherington, who moved to Whitehorse from Grimsby, Ont., in March 2020 for an airline job, said he made the move “because I get to see the northern lights and I can drive and not have to worry about six lanes of traffic.”
He was laid off from his Whitehorse job two days after starting due to the pandemic, but found a new job as a restaurant manager so he could stay permanently after he “he fell in love” with the way of life.
“The first time I saw the northern lights, I cried,” said Hetherington.
He calls himself “an outdoors guy” and loves how accessible hunting, fishing and camping is.
Yukon is known for its pristine wilderness, rugged landscapes and sweeping views. (Laura Howells/CBC)
Riley Coppicus moved to Whitehorse from Manitoba in 2018 for similar reasons, but he’s struggling to make ends meet now that he’s starting a family.
“You really need extra income when you’re living up north here because it’s so expensive,” said Coppicus, who is trying to save enough money for a down payment on a home.
“The housing is pretty much at Vancouver prices, if not maybe higher when you account for … the cost of heat.”
This has led many newcomers and locals to find creative ways to stay housed, including embracing life in vans or yurts.
Realtor Marc Perreault says part of the issue is the growing wage gap between government employees and people working in the private sector.
“Growth in the public sector is a big problem, making the base pay much higher, increasing housing prices,” he said.
Real estate development can’t keep up with demand
Yukon has been developing more housing than ever before, but it’s still not meeting the demand.
The 2021 CMHC report found that new housing construction in Whitehorse had more than doubled in 2020 to 478 units from the 230 units started in 2019, well above the five and 10-year averages for new housing starts in the city.
The city issued a record number of resident unit permits in 2021 — 590 of them. Between 2016 and 2021, 2,431 permits were issued.
These beautiful northern lights were captured in Takhini North, Yukon. ‘The first time I saw the northern lights, I cried,’ said Jeremy Hetherington, who moved to the territory from Ontario two years ago. (Submitted by Eng Khoon Chua)
But Perreault says development is not happening fast enough.
“It’s an environment that’s difficult to develop because of the mountains, rocks, water and other environmental factors,” he said. “So, there are limits as to what can be developed fairly quickly.”
Conversely, a lack of affordable housing is limiting economic growth, especially in communities outside of Whitehorse.
That’s the case in Carmacks, Yukon, where Mayor Lee Bodie says the housing shortage is seriously hampering the local economy and the municipality’s ability to attract and retain staff.
“I manage a large grocery store and we did a $1-million renovation 10 years ago, and we still cannot open up the lower level to the public because we don’t have the staff to man that section,” Bodie said. “There’s no place to put the people.”
Bodie is currently housing some of the store’s staff in his own home, which has three bedrooms.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
