Photo by Photo Submitted
PLANNING AREAS – The map shows the two parcels of land the Range Point master plan centres on: the Yukon government’s Lot 262-6 and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation’s settlement land parcel C-15B. Map courtesy GOVERNMENT OF YUKON
The Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) and the Yukon government are working together for the first time on a joint project to create a master plan for a residential development of between 300 and 400 lots.
Revised - The Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) and the Yukon government are working together for the first time on a joint project to create a master plan for a residential development of between 300 and 400 lots.
As seen in the map at left, the subject is the Range Point neighbourhood of Whitehorse.
The master plan centres on two parcels of land: the government’s Lot 262-6 and the KDFN’s settlement land parcel C-15B.
The plan will identify roads, location and types of housing, water and sewer infrastructure, parks and common areas, trails and potential locations for commercial and other non-residential uses.
KDFN citizens and residents in the Range Point area will be asked to provide their feedback and ideas over the coming months, beginning with a survey that goes to May 30.
They are being asked for their general development ideas, priorities and concerns.
From the feedback received, three draft neighbourhood concepts will be developed and presented for further input in the summer.
Then, the planning team will work toward a final concept this fall that will later be presented to the KDFN leadership, the government of Yukon and the City of Whitehorse for direction.
A final decision on whether to pursue joint land development will be made by the KDFN and the government.
“We are very pleased to partner with the Kwanlin Dün First Nation on the Range Point subdivision planning project,” Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn said Monday.
“Hearing what is important to their citizens and residents in the area will help ensure any future development meets their needs.
“We recognize the much-needed housing opportunities such a project will provide and look forward to collaboratively creating this master plan.”
The KDFN has owned C-15B since it signed its Final and Self-Government agreements in 2005.
Since then, the KDFN has exercised the rights in the Final and Self-Government agreements to create the policies and legislation needed to undertake land development.
The KDFN completed its Community Lands Plan in 2019.
This confirmed citizens’ direction to explore the development of C-15B, specifically through residential leases.
“Range Point could be the Yukon’s first major residential development on Yukon First Nation settlement land,” said KDFN Chief Doris Bill.
“Through this potential development, Kwanlin Dün First Nation is taking another step forward in activating the rights in our Final and Self- Government agreements, and in our recently enacted Lands Act.
“Kwanlin Dün citizens have identified this parcel of settlement land as a site for future development.”
The KDFN is moving forward into the next phase of planning with the government “to ensure that the development is right for citizens and residents in the area,” added Bill.
“We look forward to engaging in the planning process and listening to what people have to say.”
The City of Whitehorse started the conversation about development of Lot 262-6/C-15B when its council adopted 2014 Range Road North Neighbourhood Plan.
The KDFN registered a parcel of settlement land in the Yukon Land Titles Office, receiving the first certificate of title for Category A Settlement Land in the Yukon.
This made it possible for individuals or businesses to purchase a leasehold interest on settlement land and register it in the Yukon Land Titles Office.
On Oct. 15, 2020, the KDFN brought into force its new, modern Lands Act, Nan kay sháwthän Däk’anúta ch’e, We all look after our land.
The act empowers the First Nation to make Settlement Land available to meet the residential and other lands needs of beneficiaries and citizens.
“On behalf of city council, I am excited to see the Government of Yukon and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation partner to develop two parcels of land in the Range Point neighbourhood,” said Mayor Dan Curtis.
“When city administration worked on the Range Road North Neighborhood Plan in 2013-14, one priority was to connect this area to the rest of city, and give it its own neighborhood identity.
“I believe this represents a wonderful opportunity for Kwanlin Dün First Nation to achieve both, and to turn these parcels into a beautiful neighbourhood we can all be proud of.”
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Comments (35)
Up 7 Down 3
Wilf Carter on May 24, 2021 at 10:29 am
Here is an interesting factor that Yukon and Federal Government are not telling you about living on FNs lands.
If you live on FNs lands 50% of your income taxes go to the FNs band that you live on. So it is a way for FNs to obtain tax payers money.
Up 14 Down 3
sometimes the USA has a better way on May 24, 2021 at 1:38 am
You don't hear any of this crap in the USA how the natives were conquered by a more advanced people. Period. Now they have casinos, and we get treaties and never ending conflicts. You wanna be sovereign, then stop asking for government handouts.
Up 1 Down 28
Observer on May 23, 2021 at 10:22 am
What decade are you people in? All these negative comments are about issues that have already been entrenched in the highest laws of the land. FNs were here before you, that has been proven, and we lived here for thousands of years before you all got booted out of Europe, it was probably tough but have the things that Europeans bought really improved things, look at all the challenges that world faces now, who is to say it is better?
You folks should spend your energy on improving relations with FNs for everybody, lots of new comers are doing it and seem to be doing just fine. Does not matter how much you complain, there is no way your Con party could change things even if they were in power, which they are not.
Up 14 Down 1
martin on May 21, 2021 at 10:43 pm
@Immigrants? Even back then, it showed who had the better technology.
Up 18 Down 1
martin on May 21, 2021 at 10:36 pm
@Just saying: your account of your "heritage, etc" does not match my conversations with elders illustrating how hard life was before "immigrants and settlers" brought some modem confort (she was talking life pre-wwII"). I don't even imagine what it was like before 1898.
Up 24 Down 1
drum on May 21, 2021 at 8:47 pm
We are all immigrants from somewhere but we should all pay our way. Not expect the hard working people of Canada to keeping paying the bill from our taxes. Where do you think Government money comes from - the Canadian Taxpayers.
Up 24 Down 4
Groucho d'North on May 21, 2021 at 2:25 pm
@Patti Eyre
Yes I have studied North American history and the migration of mankind from the Blue Fish Caves all the way down to Tierra del Fuego. Including the invasion of the Spanish Conquisidors, Columbus and his gangs and even as far back as the Vikings and the fur traders that followed and the development of communiites throughout the continent. Yes there were vile conflicts with aboriginal people in all cases.
Anybody alive today was not alive during these historic aggressions yet many like you want to turn back the clock and somehow make people today responsible for the wrongs of our forefathers. Why not take it back further and make people today responsible for the Mongol hoards and the Roman occupation of western Europe?
Human civilizations evolve, and I like to think we are improving as time flows by, far from perfect I know but moving in the right direction otherwise we would not be having this intercourse.
Up 37 Down 7
Identity Crisis on May 21, 2021 at 12:03 pm
@ Immigrants - What is even more funny about this “immigrant” narrative is that there is archeological evidence of European DNA in the Lake Baikal region from about 27,000 years ago or so - Around the time that the so called First Peoples migrated through Mongolia and to North America across the land bridge.
The same article stated that the First Peoples had a genetic makeup of 30% European ancestry. So, it appears that we are all First Peoples from long ago.
Up 12 Down 28
Patti Eyre on May 21, 2021 at 9:41 am
@Groucho: have you ever wondered about the history of North America? 90 percent of the population of First Nation people were killed off by pestilence and disease, slavery and outright murder, followed by forced starvation, disposition of land, and concentration camps called reserves, on which the Nazis based their own brand of genocide.
It doesn’t really sound like a good time for the original occupants of this continent. I do think about how this is linked to the bible, for I do believe in those teachings, and I am filled with sorrow, and try to live a good life and help others, and to speak out when I see ignorance, to shine a light on it and clear it out. I pray for you to read up on these matters, before being so flippant.
Up 47 Down 7
Immigrants? on May 21, 2021 at 8:03 am
I enjoy when First Nations call everyone else immigrants. News Flash, you were not born of the crow and wolf or whatever the story is.
First nation people are of Asian decent (Mongolian/Chinese etc.) You crossed a land-bridge, Europeans came on boats. Both Immigrants.
Up 19 Down 7
Olav on May 20, 2021 at 8:58 pm
@Lawl
You won't be building. The respective FN will develop a mobile home park.
It will be like purchasing a trailer in Northlands. You own the structure but pay a “pad fee” for placement of your unit. Banks finance your home via a loan as opposed to a mortgage.
KDFN will now be operating the newest trailer park in Whitehorse.
Up 20 Down 7
My Opinion on May 20, 2021 at 3:50 pm
Re Taxes on Leased First Nations land.
If you build on First Nations land your Land taxes will be transferred to said First Nation. Not only that, but you are now a resident of that First Nation and all of the Income taxes of those residents will be flowed back from the Federal Government to the First Nation. Even if you own a business and Corporate taxes will flow back as well. This is all outlined in the Umbrella Final agreement and enshrined in law.
Just wait till this is rolled out Nationally as it will be.
Up 30 Down 8
Groucho d' North on May 20, 2021 at 3:19 pm
@Just saying
Have you ever wondered where aboriginal people would be today had all the technology and science and tools not been introduced by the arrival of the "settlers"?
This line comes to mind whenever I hear the argument you presented.
"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" The Life of Brian by Python Co.
Up 26 Down 2
Lawl on May 20, 2021 at 2:30 pm
Who in their right mind would build on leased land? Look at the nightmares down south as 'home owner' are getting evicted after a 99 year lease expiration.
The FN should build out that land for their members to get into the housing market.
Also: COW and YG need to get their sh*t together regarding traffic on Mountainview with 8,000 Whistlebenders and a few hundred on Range Point will make that road a major congestion point (more so than now)
The City is so out of touch they have a Speed radar set up at the bottom of Mountianview, this morning I went by it doing 14km/h. 14!
Up 18 Down 9
Groucho d' North on May 20, 2021 at 10:53 am
@bonanzajoe
Why, the end consumers will end up paying for the project of course. Same way that the carbon taxes are driving Inflation higher in Canada. Some call it the cost of sales or overhead & all that gets passed into the purchase price to maintain a profit margin for the vendor. So why is lumber at an all time high? It gets trucked up here like 99% of everything you see around you. Lumber stores add the fuel tax to their retail prices that contractors pay for building materials for houses that consumers hope to purchase.
Ask Larry how the federal Liberals are going to get inflation under control - I'll bet an expensive bottle of scotch he won't provide a legitimate answer. Um, er, ah- we're studying it... I don't expect anything different from the Yukon's Finance Minister either.
Up 37 Down 3
joe on May 20, 2021 at 9:44 am
@ just saying... I was born here just like you- we're equal, we have the same rights, that's Canada.
Up 18 Down 11
5 Monkeys on May 19, 2021 at 7:06 pm
Hello Anie - I agree with your post. I am not responsible for the thoughts, feelings, or the behaviours of others now or in the past. Where did we go so wrong... That this perversion would be so liberally applied to those who bear no fault but for the sins of someone else’ father?
Liberals - Like the story of the 5 monkeys... Don’t let them succeed... Drag them down and beat them! Soon everyone will be a Liberal...
Up 27 Down 8
Pull up your socks? on May 19, 2021 at 6:24 pm
Maybe if you recognize that your complaint about loss of culture is being furthered by having CYFN headed by individuals who accept Christ as their saviour, nothing wrong with that, but FN haven't put forward a tangible concept of what time they want to go back to. Are you trying to go back to pre-contact? This concept or idea is a complete farce. Any attempt to replace the culture is actually an intervention on the real. It creates a representation not the real.
If you want the real, it's this -
"FN's are a group of people in Canada that are recognized as being separate from Cdn's." There is no other cultural aspect that exists because everything is gone. But, anyways, this is too complex for most people. Let's keep printing vinyl decals with native images on it and selling them for $2.00. Or using paints, or paper, or canvas, or create totem poles in climate controlled rooms. Because that creates authenticity!
Up 20 Down 8
Sorry what? FN's pay taxes? on May 19, 2021 at 5:59 pm
By FN you mean the treatied bands? Then no, they don't pay taxes. Any amount they may pay is inconsequential to the large payouts doled out (which I agree with) from the fed.
A simple way to think of it is this. If given the option to
a) not pay taxes BUT also receive no government funding
OR
b) stay in the current arrangement
Which one do you think the FN's would pick?
Up 64 Down 12
Anie on May 19, 2021 at 2:21 pm
Just saying, isn't it time to pull up your socks, move on, and stop dining out on real or perceived injustices inflicted by god knows who on your long gone ancestors? Enough already. I was born here. I am a Canadian, not an immigrant or a settler. . That being said, I am thankful to long gone generations who had the courage to leave their homes and immigrate to a place with unknown opportunities and harsh climate, and the fortitude to work hard and contribute to the Canada that we have become. I absolutely refuse to apologize. I will take ownership of my failures, but will not beat myself up over actions taken by people I don't even know, and I don't for a minute accept the "these people all good, those people all evil" version of history.
Up 26 Down 13
Josey Wales on May 19, 2021 at 1:10 pm
Well folks, every election has its costs.
Given the need for metric democrats to have a good stock of subjects, they hold the purse strings to the white guilt fund, they clearly hate old stock Canadians outta their clic, are the best race baiters & divide & conquer tacticians...I say this.
Takes a country to raise a village.
*general statement in the context of deals/ nation destruction (not terribly related to this genetic utopia hood to be)
Gotta say team SS and that CCP worshiping fool, have thus far done far more damage than even my cynical self thought possible.
Up 52 Down 12
Max Mack on May 19, 2021 at 9:42 am
Full disclosure of all payments, subsidies, grants, gifts, or loans made to KDFN (or any of its dev corps or affiliate organizations) is a must.
Also, GY should disclose all expenditures relating to planning, design, studies, site development, infrastructure, and any other development or construction costs relating to this plan and any subsequent development.
Up 17 Down 74
Just saying on May 19, 2021 at 8:24 am
Peter if you understand what we went through. If all you immigrants can give us our land, heritage, language and culture back you can keep all the money in your pocket. All these were strapped, beaten, or starved out my parents, uncle's, aunties, cousins but of course people like you will never understand.
Up 62 Down 13
shane on May 19, 2021 at 6:45 am
I agree 100 % with Peter, Tax payers should not be paying to build on first nations land.
Up 35 Down 8
Olav on May 18, 2021 at 11:29 pm
Lease’s or leasehold only. No land ownership.
Given that the current home type in the area is mobile homes, it is probably safe to assume that this new area will be of the same nature.
A mobile home park. Affordable trailers with pad rentals.
Up 22 Down 43
Patti Eyre on May 18, 2021 at 9:13 pm
Peter I feel sorry for you, living in the dark ages as you do, First Nations pay taxes and property taxes like everybody else, why don’t you read a book once in a while, or at least wake up and smell the fireweed!
Up 11 Down 30
Yukon star on May 18, 2021 at 7:17 pm
Peter - it's a partnership between Yukon government and KDFN so they are both putting money in to develop.
Up 33 Down 6
K. Dunning on May 18, 2021 at 6:09 pm
Well, well, well... It’s the least they can do to solve the housing crisis - You will own nothing and be happy.
Up 25 Down 8
bonanzajoe on May 18, 2021 at 5:31 pm
Groucho: and just what one of those two will be paying for the project?
Up 20 Down 6
Nathan Living on May 18, 2021 at 4:57 pm
I would like to see GY develop rural residential lots within city limits and manage the proposed City parks in Whitehorse.
The City just does not seem to pass muster on communication with the public and First Nations.
Up 13 Down 12
DA on May 18, 2021 at 4:48 pm
Resident,
May the plan for the Pine Street Extension remain dead in the water.
Up 128 Down 31
Peter on May 18, 2021 at 4:00 pm
Any cost to develop land on KDFN, should be paid by KDFN. It is about time that First Nation start paying and not relying on YTG to pay for everything and as Yukon taxpayer I would like to keep some of my money in my pockets!
Up 60 Down 4
Can you own your home? on May 18, 2021 at 3:50 pm
That's my only question.
Up 34 Down 31
Groucho d'North on May 18, 2021 at 2:55 pm
This is good news. I hope this project leads the way for other residential developments on FN lands.
Up 71 Down 3
Resident on May 18, 2021 at 2:26 pm
The City really needs to come up with a plan for access to that end of town. Range Road cannot be expanded and Mountain View Drive would require serious reengineering that just deadends onto an equally unexpandable Copper/Quartz. The plan for the Pine Street Extension to the Highway seems desd in the water