Health Minister Brad Cathers speaks to reports at the Yukon Legislature. Photo Courtesy of Macklen Linke/CKRW.
Whitehorse, YT – Yukon’s opposition parties say the government has a unique opportunity to fast-track U.S.-trained doctors as the territory struggles to recruit and retain healthcare workers.
In the past 18 months, four family practices have closed, and none of the 153 locum doctors who worked in Yukon in 2024 chose to stay.
Yukon Party Health Critic Brad Cathers is urging the government to cut red tape and actively recruit U.S. healthcare professionals, citing instability in the American system.
“We do think there’s a specific opportunity to target a marketing campaign to us trained doctors and other health professionals, to reach them where they’re living in the United States, to paint the picture for them of what life could be like in Yukon and frankly to take advantage of the chaos south of the border,” said Cathers.
Health Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee said the government is focused on broader international recruitment, which includes American professionals.
“We’d be happy to have American doctors that want to come and work here, that are trained in the US or trained internationally in other places,” said McPhee.
The Yukon government has increased healthcare recruitment funding by $2 million annually over the past three years, with the latest budget boosting insured health services funding by nearly 30 percent.
Yukon NDP Leader Kate White supports targeting U.S. doctors but questioned the effectiveness of the government’s current approach.
“It’s not really working right now. We’re not recruiting new doctors, we’re not recruiting new healthcare professionals,” said White. “The proof is not in the pudding right now.”
