CANADIAN RELOCATION
YUKON PROFILE

Yukon: population: 36,700 (2013); Area: 186,661 square miles (483,450 square km).

The name Yukon Territory may also be used, although this usage is disputed by residents of the territory. The federal government's most recent update of the Yukon Act in 2003 confirmed Yukon, rather than Yukon Territory, as the current usage standard.

At 5,959 metres (19,551 ft), the Yukon's Mount Logan, in Kluane National Park and Reserve, is the highest mountain in Canada and the second highest of North America.

Yukon Territory is bounded by the U.S. state of Alaska to the west, the Northwest Territories to the east, and British Columbia to the south and extends northward above the Arctic Circle to the Beaufort Sea. Its capital, Whitehorse, is the largest settlement.

In general, the climate of the Yukon is continental despite the proximity of the moderating influence of the Pacific Ocean, which the mountains prevent from acting directly on the territory.

Although temperatures vary, sometimes reaching summer highs of 95º F (35º C) and winter lows below -60º F (-51º C), the monthly average readings are not unlike those found in some Canadian cities farther east and south.

Summers are short but the days are long, especially in the northern part of the territory lying above the Arctic Circle. Precipitation is light, averaging only 10 inches (250 mm) annually at Whitehorse.

Gold was discovered on tributaries of the Yukon River in the 1870s, resulting in an influx of miners, American traders, and finally in the mid-1890s a small detachment of North West Mounted Police.

The great gold rush of 1898 followed the discovery of rich deposits in Bonanza Creek (a Klondike River tributary). The Klondike boom sparked the formation of Dawson City (inhabited by 30,000 during the peak) and the construction of the White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) narrow-gauge railway, linking Whitehorse and Skagway (Alaska).

In 1898 the Canadian Parliament separated the rapidly growing area from the Northwest Territories and gave it separate territorial status. The Klondike boom was short-lived. By 1900 most of the individual miners had given up and were replaced by companies that brought large-scale mechanical mining techniques.

Gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, asbestos, and coal have been extracted in the Yukon Territory, and there are vast reserves of unmined minerals. Federal assistance stimulated the mining industry in the 1950s, but the industry began to decline in the late 20th century. Government and tourism have become the territory's economic mainstays.

World War II brought improvements in transportation, including construction of the Alaska Highway. The Klondike Highway linking Dawson, Mayo, Whitehorse, and Skagway was built in the 1950s-70s, and the Dempster Highway linking Dawson, Fort McPherson, and Inuvik opened in 1979. Scheduled jet air services operate between Whitehorse and Edmonton, Alta., and Vancouver, B.C. Light aircraft link all settlements in the Yukon.

The Yukon Act, passed on April 1 2003, formalised the powers of the Yukon government and devolved additional powers to the territorial government (e.g., control over land and natural resources). As of 2003, other than criminal prosecutions, the Yukon government has much of the same powers as provincial governments, and the other two territories are looking to obtaining the same powers.

Today the role of commissioner is analogous to that of a provincial lieutenant governor; however, unlike lieutenant-governors, commissioners are not formal representatives of the Queen but are employees of the federal government.

Although there has been discussion in the past about Yukon becoming Canada's 11th province, it is generally felt that its population base is too sparse for this to occur at present.

Education from kindergarten through grade 12 is free and compulsory in public and government-aided Roman Catholic and private Indian schools. The government started a program in Indian communities to promote teaching in indigenous dialects with texts about land and living skills.

Yukon College at Whitehorse, with a network of community branches, provides two years of university-level courses and a number of vocational and adult-education programs.

Among Canadian literature about the Yukon, the verse and fiction of Robert Service and Klondike (1958) by Yukon-born Pierre Berton are the most famous. Californian Jack London first achieved literary renown with short stories and novels reflecting hisexperience in the Klondike gold rush.

There are museums and displays in Whitehorse and Dawson commemorating the gold-rush days. Several radio and television stations, newspapers, and a library system operating out of Whitehorse provide news and entertainment.

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