Yukon Soaps Company opens new workshop, affordable housing building in Mayo

A soap shop in rural Yukon is celebrating 10 years in business by moving into a new building one the owner hopes will not only help her keep up with growing demand, but benefit her community as well.

Joella Hogan has owned the Yukon Soaps Company, which specializes in hand-crafted soap bars featuring ingredients collected in the territory, for a decade now.

While she's largely operated it out of her home in Mayo a community of around 460 people roughly 400 km north of Whitehorse Hogan, a citizen of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, will soon be moving production to a newly built space on Second Avenue.

Called Raven's Landing, a nod to Hogan's clan, the two-storey, dark-aqua building contains not only a 2,000-square-foot workshop for soap-making, but two one-bedroom affordable housing units, one of which is wheelchair-accessible,and a third apartment for short-term rentals for visitors.

Hogan told the CBC that housing is a "critical" issue in Mayo, with the community struggling to both house residents and attract qualified people for key jobs something that was on her mind as she thought about building a dedicated location for Yukon Soaps.

"I thought, 'I have an opportunity here to contribute more to the community and not just my business,' and so it just really made sense to add housing to this building," she said.

Dozens of people attended the grand opening for Raven's Landing on April 8, where they had the chance to tour the still-empty workspace and apartments.

Among the attendees was Ranj Pillai, the minister responsible for the Yukon Housing Corporation. The corporation gave the Yukon Soaps Company $160,000 from its housing initiatives fund for the construction of the affordable units.

"I think that for all of us, we can say, after what we just went through for the last two years and what's going on in the world, we need more good things happening and we need more Joellas in the world making good things happen," he told attendees during the opening ceremony.

Simon Mervyn Sr., the chief of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, was also at the opening.

"We're very proud of [Hogan]," he said, adding it is good to see more infrastructure in Mayo and citizens creating more economic opportunities for themselves and other community members.

"Moving forward with the dreams and aspirations of young folks like Joella is commendable."

'Some days I miss someone else telling me what to do'

Hogan is the third owner of the Yukon Soaps Company, purchasing the business in 2012 and building a local customer base in the territory and beyond.

Besides soap bars, the company also sells other products including essential oils, bath salts and scrubs containing Yukon-harvested plants and flowers like fireweed, wild roses and juniper berries, with product names and packaging featuring the Northern Tutchone language and the work of local Indigenous artists.

The business, Hogan said, started growing "a lot quicker than I thought," and she hasn't been able to keep up with demand for years now.

"When I started out, I never could have imagined that this is what would be happening and that the business would kind of grow to that reach, so (I'm) super proud and super nervous," she said, adding that she hopes to hire more people from Mayo to help her ramp up production.

"Some days I miss someone else telling me what to do But I have a great team and I know that this business is really well supported by so many people and especially Yukoners. So on days when I have been really stuck and wanted to give up, you know, there was just always so much love and appreciation and support to keep going."

Besides creating both housing and employment opportunities in the community, Hogan said she was also proud of the fact that Raven's Landing is all-Indigenous it was designed by architect Alanna Quock with Regenative Design and built by the Van Fleet Construction, both of which, like Yukon Soaps, are Indigenous-owned businesses.

"The fact that (Raven's Landing) is Yukon First Nation owned, designed and built is really, really exciting to me," Hogan said.

Also significant is the fact that the building is located near the Stewart River, the Northern Tutchone name of which the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun derives its name from. Areas near the banks of the river were traditional gathering places and Raven's Landing has reclaimed a little more of that space.