Yukon NDP passes health-care law for Yukon doctors
April 17, 2025
WHITEHORSE, YT — The Yukon NDP delivered more healthcare solutions for Yukoners Wednesday, April 16, by passing party leader Kate White’s healthcare bill in support of Yukon doctors.
White’s Bill 310 secures important supports for Yukon doctors long-sought by the Yukon Medical Association (YMA), whose expert knowledge and clinical experience shaped White’s law.
“Yukon doctors work hard to care for Yukoners and their families, so the NDP was happy to work on solutions when the YMA told me they wanted our help,” White said after MLAs unanimously voted for her law Wednesday afternoon.
“When the YMA came to my team to write Bill 310 together, we said, ‘Yes!’ right away. Passing Bill 310 will take more Yukoners off the waitlist for family doctors, because we’ll be able to recruit more doctors, and keep the doctors we already have in the territory.”
White’s law will help the YMA overcome longstanding challenges with doctor recruitment and retention, according to YMA President, Dr. Derek Bryant.
“We found an ally in the NDP in terms of Kate being willing to actually work with us to bring forward legislation, and even proposing the idea that legislation is one way that we could address these problems,” Bryant told reporters at the Yukon Legislature Monday, March 31.
White’s law brings Yukon doctors’ representational rights in line with the rest of Canada. The YMA will represent all Yukon doctors in contract negotiations with the Yukon Government after Bill 310 comes into force next year.
Strengthening Yukon doctors’ representational rights will give doctors more time to care for patients while the YMA gets doctors better pay, and handles their burdensome paperwork.
Around 4,000 Yukoners were waiting for family doctors after nine years under the Yukon Liberal government. Many waitlisted Yukoners have been without a family doctor for years.
The YMA approached both the Liberal and Yukon Party for support with this bill, but they refused.
Ninety Yukon doctors wrote letters of support for Bill 310 in the days before White tabled it in the Legislature on March 31.
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