After 45 years, Dawson City's employment services office closes over lack of funding

A non-profit employment organization in Dawson City, Yukon, has shut down after 45 years because of funding cuts, the territorial government says.

Klondike Outreach was supervised by a volunteer board of directors and offered services from its office in Dawson and its website. The organization was fully funded by the federal and territorial governments to provide employment services, such as updating local job boards and offering information on the labour market.

But the organization took to social media on Oct. 1 to say it was closed until further notice, and would no longer be posting jobs, maintaining its website, answering emails or phone messages.

Nobody from the Klondike Outreach was available to comment.

According to Linnea Blum, a spokesperson from the Yukon government's department of economic development, the funding agreement with Klondike Outreach was due to expire in "mid-October."

"Due to a significant reduction in federal funding to the Yukon for labour market development, and in consideration of the changing labour market realities in the territory, a successor service has not yet been determined," Blum wrote, in an email to CBC News.

"In the absence of a successor agreement, Klondike Outreach made the decision to suspend activity at this time."

Blum said the department was working on an "interim service delivery plan" to ensure Dawson City has needed employment services.

Premier Ranj Pillai said in the legislature last week that Klondike Outreach had provided case management services to only one person in the last year. He said the organization submitted an application for an additional $100,000 to stay open until March.

Pillai also said federal funding to the territory for labour market development had been cut by $800,000 this year.

"So we're working with all organizations to ensure they work within their budget," he said.

Dawson's chamber of commerce also cuts back

The Dawson City Chamber of Commerce says it has also significantly scaled back services after a funding application to the territory was denied.

"We applied for some funding support to implement our new revitalization pilot project," said Justine Hobbs, who works for the chamber. "Because we've been trying to get back on our feet since COVID. We submitted an application. It was not successful."

Hobbs said the chamber of commerce's resources are now stretched extremely thin.

"Our operations are down to about 12 hours weekly," she said.

"We're still trying to provide the services that we had been doing since we started the revitalization, and we're looking into seeing what kind of gaps are going to be created from the Klondike Outreach and see if we can help support that — but at this point we have to scale back."

Hobbs believes the territory isn't fairly distributing funds between Whitehorse and rural communities.

"To me, as a small business owner, that's a little bit frustrating because we're trying to start businesses. We're trying to keep our economic growth thriving and when these services are cut it does impact the small businesses that are trying to operate here," Hobbs said.

She also said that despite cuts to some local services, there are always plenty of new businesses opening in Dawson.