Sarah Connors
APTN news

The Council of Yukon First Nations says it is disappointed by the Yukon government’s decision to end the territory’s only program for women.

“We know that Indigenous women and Yukon First Nations are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, this program ending really impacts Indigenous women,” Executive Director Shadelle Chambers told APTN News.

The government funded Takhini Haven transitional women’s program open early 2023. Hailed as the first of its kind in the north, the program operated out of a building located on the Whitehorse Correctional Center (WCC) property.

The Yukon government provided $1.2 million for the program, which could house up to eight women transitioning from the criminal justice system, such as those who have completed a prison sentence and need supervised housing.

The program was operated by the non-profit organization Connective. The Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) partnered with the organization to provide cultural programming.

Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee told the territorial legislature earlier this month that the program was “not terribly successful” and was discontinued at the end of September.

She said seven women lived there when it opened, but all but one left to deal with their problems elsewhere.

“It was the appropriate and responsible decision to pause and evaluate the program,” McPhee said.

Stopping the program ‘is not the only option’

But Chambers said CYFN would have liked to have been involved in finding other options for the program. She noted that CYFN, Connective and the government could have worked collaboratively to learn what barriers women face when accessing the program.

“To see it cut so suddenly and so short … there’s going to be some bumps along the way,” she said. “I know interrupting or stopping a program is always an option, but it’s not the only option.”

Chambers said that without a half-time program, women transitioning out of criminal justice and unable to meet certain conditions upon release, such as housing, would likely be incarcerated at WCC.

“It’s very important that we have a program available to women so that they have an option other than incarceration, so that they have opportunities to connect with their children, participate in programs in the community, and have access to support and services,” she said. .

Chambers also questioned why an equipped building is not being used to provide supportive housing.

“In the Yukon, we are well aware of the housing crisis, so why would we have an empty unit when it could be used to help support some of our most vulnerable women,” she said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Jasmine Doll said the government had decided to discontinue the program “due to low admissions rates and to conduct an evaluation of the service.”

Doll said the results of the assessment are expected to be completed by March 2025.

The department said WCC currently has three female inmates, all of whom are indigenous.

This story was first published in APNT News