The new agreement between the Yukon Medical Association and the Yukon government sets out multiple incentives, with hopes of recruitment and retention of doctors to the territory

$250,000.

That’s how much a Yukon-bound doctor could get for signing a contract to work in the Whitehorse emergency department for the next five years, thanks to a new agreement between the Yukon Medical Association and the Yukon Department of Health and Social Services.

Doctors in the territory voted in favour of the memorandum of agreement between the advocacy group and government department on Aug. 25, per Yukon Medical Association head Dr. Derek Bryant.

There are reams of incentives within the 58-page agreement.

Some are carryovers from previous understandings, per Johanna Smith, the director of physician compensation and medical affairs with the Yukon health department. These include the quarterly allowance for overhead costs of running a family practice, or the government’s full reimbursement of the medical liability insurance premiums that doctors have to pay.

Some are new, like the $125,000 signing bonus for new doctors who choose to practice in the Yukon. If those new doctors choose to work in an acute-care setting like the Whitehorse Hospital emergency room or in a rural setting, they get another $125,000 on top of that.

The money is set to be distributed by the Yukon Medical Association, who will pay the doctors out over five years.

“The hope is that, you know, people will come and work here and experience the Yukon for that first five years, and then, you know, get a dog and fall in love with some local sport and never, never leave,” Bryant said on Sept. 5 in an interview with the News.

The agreement will also see fees that doctors charge the Yukon government increase. The fee-for-service model in the Yukon involves a list of fees for the services that doctors provide in their practice. The fees are how much the government will pay the doctor out for that service.

Those fees are set to increase, now, which will see the Yukon government pay those doctors more. According to the memorandum of agreement, there’s a retroactive increase of three per cent dating back to April 1, 2025. Then, fees are set to increase by 1.5 per cent as of April 1, 2026 and again on April 1, 2027.

Smith said the intention of the incentives is to ensure the Yukon is competitive with other jurisdictions — especially northern ones — when it comes to attracting physicians.

“We do believe it continues to keep us, keep Yukon at the cutting edge of being competitive in this market,” she said of the agreement.

Another part of the agreement is the Longitudinal Family Medicine Program, which will be funded by the Yukon government.

Smith said physicians who sign onto the Longitudinal Family Medicine program are expected to take patients off of the Find a Family Provider Program list.

According to the memorandum, physicians are expected to maintain a roster of 500 patients annually, and agree to accept a minimum of 10 patients annually from the family doctor waiting list. These doctors are also expected to offer two unscheduled same-day appointments for patients, daily.

These doctors will receive a panel payment of $25,000 for 500 patients, which will be additional to any fees they charge for services provided to their patients. These doctors will also be able to bill $100 for every 30 minutes spent working on indirect patient care.

Smith said it’s unclear right now as to how many patients will be able to be matched to a family doctor through this program. She added that it depends on how many doctors sign up to work with the program.

This agreement comes at a time when staffing shortages in health care in the Yukon have led to the Whitehorse Walk-in Clinic turning away an average of 22 patients a day.

Earlier this year, an orthopedic doctor working at the Whitehorse General Hospital left the Yukon, alleging the government was systemically underfunding surgical services in the territory.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Yukon was one of the top jurisdictions when it came to the amount of visits to the emergency department that could have been addressed through primary care in 2023-2024.

In the Yukon, 21.8 per cent of emergency room visits could have been managed through primary care — as opposed to 12.6 per cent in Prince Edward Island, 13.3 per cent in Ontario, 17.5 per cent in Saskatchewan and 17.1 per cent in Alberta. The national average was 14.6 per cent.

According to Bryant, there were 10,000 Yukoners without regular access to a health care provider as of 2023.

Bryant said he didn’t think the agreement would lead to an immediate influx of physicians coming to the territory. Instead, he said it’s an important tool to start bringing in doctors to help care for Yukoners.

“Hopefully it remains part of a larger strategy that includes things like the work that’s happening with health transformation and the residency program and the ongoing need to address some of the infrastructure needs in the territory.”

Bryant said the most important metric of the agreement’s success will be increasing rates of people with a family doctor.

“Beyond that, I think what we would like to also see is whether people can not just access a family doctor, but access them in a reasonable time frame that ultimately offloads the emergency department, which is currently overburdened by the requirement to provide primary care as a result of the existing gaps,” Bryant said.

Bryant said he will be looking at recruitment numbers in the future as well. He said it’s estimated the territory is short 15 family physicians, not including specialists.

The across-the-board fee increases went into effect retroactive to April 1, 2025. The recruitment bonuses, and programs for overhead support went into effect immediately upon the agreement’s ratification, per Bryant. The remainder of the programs within the agreement, including the longitudinal family medicine program, go into effect April 1, 2026.

Another aspect of the agreement is a Yukon First Nations, Métis and Inuit Cultural Awareness Program.

Bryant said that that program provides funding for physicians who want expand cultural knowledge of Indigenous people so that they can provide more culturally appropriate care.

Smith said that fund is unique to the Yukon.

“I haven’t seen any other jurisdiction invest in that type of programming in the past,” she said. “So I think that is a sort of a differentiator between Yukon and aligns with where our community values fit.”

Contact Talar Stockton at [email protected]