Yukon’s finance minister predicts an $81.96 million surplus this year as the territory promises record capital investment in housing.
However, it’s also forecasting a shrinking real GDP in the wake of last year’s disaster at the Eagle Gold mine.
Sandy Silver tabled the $2.36 billion budget, including nearly $478 million in planned capital spending, saying the document charts a “responsible, sustainable and compassionate path forward.”
The government’s capital plan includes funding to finish turning a former Whitehorse hotel into 67 supportive housing units, money toward building affordable rentals with the Kwanlin Dun First Nation, and land development projects.
Silver says Yukon is spending more than $5 million to support the building of new affordable housing, and launching a $1 million program to help Yukoners buy their first home.
The territory’s real GDP is expected to decline by 0.3 per cent, which the budget blames in part on the failure of an ore storage facility and suspension of production at the Eagle Gold mine, which was owned by the territory’s largest private sector employer.
The government says the territory is “largely insulated from the direct effects” of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods due to Yukon’s “limited reliance on international goods exports.”
Almost all of the $145 million that Yukon exported to the United States last year came from the Keno Hill Mine.
The document says tariffs will impact profitability at the silver mine but that a 50 per cent increase in silver prices since last year should help absorb the shock.
But the government says the territory is not immune to tariff impacts.
“The broader economic implications cannot be ignored,” the document says.
“The unprecedented uncertainty could begin to penetrate beyond export oriented sectors and affect investment decisions for businesses not directly exposed to U.S. trade.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2025.
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
