The Yukon Hospital Corporation (YHC) wrote to the territorial health minister warning of pressure points that remain “unfunded” amid a $2.5-million operating deficit, just days after the Yukon Party government tabled its first full budget this spring.
The Yukon Hospital Corporation leadership’s letter to Health Minister Brad Cathers said the corporation found two key areas that aren’t properly funded: ongoing spikes in utility, supply and system costs, as well as a business case designed to deal with rising patient volumes and capacity constraints.
CBC obtained 79 pages of documents related to the hospital corporation’s 2026-27 budget requests through an access to information request. That package includes the March 23 letter signed by YHC CEO Tiffany Boyd and two others. The documents reveal the hospital corporation believes it needs more money.
“It’s really hard in a health environment, in an operation where you operate 24/7 and you can’t control who’s coming through the door, to ever probably have enough money to address everything because there’s always more that you can do,” she said.
She believes Cathers understands the financial situation the hospital corporation is in.
Growing complexities
In an interview, Boyd said providing care is becoming more complex with tougher standards, more acute needs, and a growing and aging population that’s generally living longer and requiring more routine medical tests. Boyd also said the territory is seeing a disproportionate rate of mental health and substance use admissions.
Boyd said the Whitehorse General Hospital hit 146-per-cent capacity on June 11.
She said the hospital corporation finished the last fiscal year “on budget.” Boyd said this year’s operating deficit mostly reflects higher fuel and electricity costs.
She said YHC doesn’t have a line of credit, so it delayed payments to vendors beyond 30 days, to the tune of $10.7 million, in order to make payroll and pay other critical costs.
“What I can say is that our budget demonstrates improvements in a lot of areas this fiscal year over last fiscal year,” she said.
For example, new charge nurses are less focused on patient assignments and more focused on the department’s work. Boyd said those positions offer better mentorship, oversight and communication between the unit, nurses and physicians.
She said third-line nurses are now operating overnight at the Watson Lake and Dawson City community hospitals, and mental health nurses support the emergency department.
Meanwhile, Boyd said cancer care has seen both expanded services and 73 per cent growth in demand over the last four years.
Getting worse
Despite eight new beds set to open at Whitehorse General Hospital in early July, Boyd expects the hospital will remain over capacity. And she said wait times are getting worse.
“Space, right now is, I’d say, one of the Whitehorse General Hospital’s Achilles heels,” she said. “We can’t actually achieve any increased efficiency without adding space.”
Boyd said the visiting specialist clinic — built to see 2,000 patients a year — is currently seeing closer to 14,000.
The ultrasound squad shifted its work schedules to accommodate more clients within its existing space, she said.
Boyd defended the hospitals’ level of care and safety and expressed pride in health care workers who bear the brunt of providing care.
“They wear their hearts on their sleeves,” she said.
Top challenge
Cathers, the health minister, believes the strain the hospital system faces tops the challenges ahead for the territorial government.
Cathers repeatedly points out hospital funding and capacity issues. He blames the current situation on the former Liberal government’s “nine years of neglect.”
“That includes the fact that the Whitehorse General Hospital expansion plan basically sat for six and a half years on the previous minister’s desk, or previous ministers’ desks, I should say, collecting dust,” he said.
Cathers often cites an independent 2023 report on the Yukon Hospital Corporation’s governance and financial management. That report examined the corporation’s capacity to deal with its “chronic cash flow and operating shortfall.”
It says the hospital corporation used $7.3 million in capital funds, exclusively set aside for the Whitehorse hospital’s now-open mental health unit, for operating purposes. The report says that’s because the hospital corporation was at risk of not being able to make payroll and other operating obligations because it also faced a deficit at the time.
Erasing the deficit
Cathers said the hospitals’ 2026-27 budget requests are tied to insufficient space.
He said the YHC board approved the $2.5-million deficit before an update on its pension plan. On that front, Cathers said YHC must take a “contribution holiday” this year which will “more than erase” the deficit. He said it works out to about $4 million more.
However, a YHC spokesperson said by email that the deficit still stands.
Cathers said the Yukon Party has had “limited time” to grapple with YHC’s budget following the November 2025 election.
But he said the government included increases in hospital funding by about $7 million in the 2025-26 supplementary budget last fall and $15.8 million this year. He said recent decisions in January left YHC with “money in the bank.”
And Cathers said he’s already committed to give YHC more money this year.
The Yukon and federal governments made a deal, announced in May, that includes $74.5 million for health infrastructure, hospitals and long-term care over three years. Cathers said a chunk of that money will go to the hospital corporation, pending management board approval.
New beds opening at the old secure medical unit make up a portion of the business case for the funding, he said, adding more beds will be added at the Thomson Centre care home.
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