Residents in Dawson City, Old Crow speak out against proposed riding merger

A smallbut vocal group of Dawson City, Yukon, residents came to a public meeting on Monday night to speak out against proposed changes to Yukon's electoral boundaries.

Last month, the Yukon Electoral District Boundaries Commissionreleased its2024 interim report, which proposes that the territoryincrease the number of ridings in Whitehorse from 11 to 13,due to the city'sgrowing population, while merging rural ridings from eight down to six.

One of the proposed mergersinvolves theVuntut Gwitchinriding in Old Crow, andDawson City's Klondike riding into a new riding called Yukon North.

Fewer than a dozen peopleshowed up for the commission's public consultation meeting on Monday meeting in Dawson City, but they appearedunanimous in their feedback: Dawson Cityand Old Crow should each continue to have theirown MLAs.

Suzanne Crocker was the first resident to speak to the commission on Monday.

"I have to admit, I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1 because I thought it was an April Fool's joke," shesaid.

"I oppose the reform. I think effective representation in the Yukon shouldn't be based on population."

Crocker also pointed out howthe balance of power between rural communities and Whitehorse could be affected if the all of the recommendations in the interim report were passed.

"If this went to the legislature right now it would be in Whitehorse's interest to all vote 'yes' because then they'd get more votes and even if all of the communities say 'no, we don't like this,' we would be out-voted."

Resident Brent McDonaldsaid the MLA for Klondike already has a lot on his plate dealing with issues in Dawson. Having the KlondikeMLA take on another community's unique issues isn't practical when it comes to getting things done locally.

"When I think of the Klondike riding, we have a mining industry," McDonald said. "We have a tourism industry,endangered fisheries, we have a tremendous amount of geography. We have wildfires, we have our own hospital... Every single one of these issues is something our MLA needs to deal with or be involved with."

'They're concerned about their voice being lost'

The commission has been holding public hearings across the territory over the last month to hear comments on the proposed boundaries. Before visiting Dawson City on Monday, the commission stopped over earlier that day in Old Crow.

According to the commission's chair, JusticeSuzanne Duncan, people in Old Crow also spoke out against the proposed merger with the Klondike riding.

"They're concerned about their voice being lost," Duncan told CBC. "They have unique concerns connected to the land, and the wildlife, and protection."

Duncan reaffirmed that at this point nothing is set in stone. Shesaid the commission willreviewall of the publicfeedback over the summer anddraft a final report that will be released for public input sometime in September.

Then it will be up to the legislative assembly whether or not to move forward on the commission's recommendations.

Duncan said she hopes to send afinal report to legislators by October 9.

"What we hope is that the legislature will introduce a bill in the fall session that will propose to implement the changes we recommend in our final report," Duncan said. "It will be debated and if it passes it will become law and be in effect for the next election."

Duncan said if it doesn't get on the agenda during the fall session then it will likely be introduced in the spring session.

The next public hearing on the commission's interim report is in Haines Junction on Tuesday evening, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the St. Elias Convention Centre. Two virtual meetings are scheduled for July 23and August 13.