Yukon looks for way to reduce complaints about vehicles with out-of-territory plates

The Yukon government is looking for a way to help members of the publicidentify which vehicles with out-of-territory licence plates actually belong to Yukon residents.

Premier Sandy Silver mentioned the idea at a weekly briefing on COVID-19 developments on Wednesday.

"There are also many people who have out-of-Yukon plates that are authorized to be in our community," Silver said.

"We are working on an approach to identify these folks to ease people's concerns."

One method used in Dawson City, he said, was to give people legitimately arriving in the community a piece of paper with a checkmark to put on the dash of their vehicle.

He said for a time, many of the complaints coming from the Dawson City area were about the same vehicle with American plates. The owner of that vehicle eventually went online to tell people he was a born and raised third-generation Yukoner, Silver said.

The premier said providing legitimate vehicles with a visual marker would lighten the load of those taking complaints from the public.

He said 1,587 travellers from British Columbia have arrived in Yukon since the border opened to them on July 1. He said just over 1,100 Yukoners returned to the territory since then, and more than 1,600 people transitioned through the territory.

Meanwhile, libraries have been gradually reopening, Silver said, with the Whitehorse library set to open on July 21.

The territorial government will soon announce what will be in third phase of relaxing COVID-19 restrictions, set to begin on Aug. 1, Silversaid.

He said the decision on whether to include other jurisdictions with restriction-free entry into the territory will be up to public health officials. Currently, people from B.C. and the other territories are exempt from having to self-isolate for 14 days upon arriving in Yukon.

'Work as a nation'

Silver was asked if there are COVID-19-related programs he would like to keep in place when the crisis passes.

He said the level of communication between jurisdictions is amazing, with weekly calls in some cases, that used to be once-per-year meetings.

"The ability for us to work as a nation, especially when we're seeing what's happening south of the border," Silver said.

"I couldn't be prouder of politicians from every single political party that are putting politics aside and moving forward onthe best interests of Canadians."