Some of the Yukon’s health-care centres have been seeing temporary closures and reduced services in recent months as the territorial government’s vacancy rate for community nursing creeps up again.

As of July 2025, the Yukon government had a 27-per-cent vacancy rate in community nursing, according to the territorial chief nursing officer Sheila Thompson. That’s up from last fall when Tracy-Anne McPhee, the health minister, repeatedly cited the vacancy rate in the legislature, and her department pointed to a hiring spree that was preventing centres from temporarily shuttering and limiting services.

The News has reported fluctuating vacancy rates in community nursing, from 19 per cent in 2024 to more than 40 per cent in previous years.

The Yukon Employees’ Union (YEU) suggested in a Fac

See Full Page