A mix-up in communication between the Yukon government and Teslin Tlingit Council (TTC) has led to the unsanctioned removal of dozens of Second World War-era trucks from a historic site on the South Canol Road, says the minister of Tourism and Culture. 

Responding to Yukon Party MLA Geraldine Van Bibber in question period last Thursday, minister Ranj Pillai told the legislature his department had learned about the trucks’ removal from the heritage reserve at the end of Canol Road by Johnsons Crossing on Sept. 23.

He said the TTC, with funding from Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), removed the trucks as part of an environmental cleanup in the area.

The problem is, the trucks on that site have already been deemed environmentally safe.

They’re also protected under the Historic Resources Act and are owned and managed by the Yukon government – as signs there make clear.

“There seem to be a lack of conversations that should have happened between other levels of government with the Department of Tourism and Culture,” Pillai told reporters after that day’s question period.

“And now of course, we’re just working through a process to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

How it happened in the first place is still somewhat of a mystery.

Neither the TTC nor CIRNAC responded to the Star before press time this afternoon.

Pillai said his department is meeting with them to figure out how the trucks were removed without Yukon government approval or knowledge. 

The trucks have now been recovered from the Teslin landfill.

Pillai did not say whether there was funding available for restoration, or how much work that would require, only that all three levels of government are talking about what to do with the recovered trucks now. 

The vehicles were left when the Canol Oil project – a massive war effort to bring oil from the Northwest Territories to Whitehorse, and ultimately Alaska – was abandoned in 1945.

CIRNAC did lead a cleanup of the 222-mile Canol Trail in 2018 and 2019, but the recently removed trucks remained in place, being deemed environmentally safe and historically significant. A nearby interpretive centre with its own war-era trucks is still intact. 

Pillai acknowledged that the vehicles may have a different historical value to different Yukoners, but the government and constituents should be consulted before objects of cultural significance are moved. 

In question period, he said the “South Canol truck dump” is part of a “heritage reserves management priorities planning project” his department is undertaking.

“As part of that project, he said, the public is being consulted on the importance of the site to Yukoners.

“That work has been underway, which is even more of a challenge now with this particular situation,” Pillai said.

There are 15 other sites included in that project, and Van Bibber told the Star last Thursday she’s still concerned what a lack of government response in Teslin could mean for them.

“If there’s no protection, why even bother putting up signs?” she asked.

“You might as well just say it’s (a) free-for-all. ‘I don’t like something; I can move it.’ No, it can’t be done. Shouldn’t be done.

“(The trucks) were left in the wilderness and they were an attraction for people to come and take pictures and experience what it was like in 1942 or ’45,” Van Bibber said.

“I think that’s now lost. To some people, it wasn’t eye candy, but I think it’s important we have our links.”

Pillai told reporters he feels confident this sort of mix-up won’t happen again, in Teslin or at other sites around Yukon.

Part of his department’s conversations with the TTC and CIRNAC will look at how to make sure historic sites like this remain protected in the future.

“I would like to believe that it’s not going to happen (to other historical sites) because part of the work we do is we try to educate and inform people,” Pillai told reporters.

“Maybe they’re not aware and they see something they think is interesting and neat, but it’s a historic site … we always are trying to educate folks about not disturbing.

“In this case, I would say I think there was a misunderstanding. I think there was a lack of conversation. I understand why individuals would be concerned or even upset.”

As the government tries to get to the bottom of this, all that remains of the historic site on Canol Road for now are the signs marking it.