Sunday, September 27, 2026

Good morning, Yukon,

Who’s staying in the rental next door? This week, we look at the remarkable growth of short-term rentals and why their role deserves a closer look as Whitehorse introduces new rules.

Up in the mountains, another Yukon resident is preparing its home for winter. Meet the collared pika, a tiny animal with a serious hay-stacking habit.

We’ve also got local wins, a few good reasons to get out of the house, and the latest Yukon-relevant publicly traded data in the market board.

Pour yourself a coffee. Let’s get into it.

The guests checking in are part of a bigger story. A case for short-term rentals.

The guest in the suite next door might be here for the northern lights. They might also be the doctor covering your clinic, or a parent bringing a child to Whitehorse for treatment.

Short-term rentals serve all of these people. Over the past decade, they have become a much bigger part of Yukon’s accommodation market, giving guests more options and property owners another way to earn income.

Government of Yukon tourism data show that average monthly available entire-home listings increased from 19 in 2015 to 275 in 2025. That works out to 30.6% annual growth, compounded over ten years.

The market started small, and growth was uneven. Listings fell in 2020 and 2021 during COVID lockdown before climbing again. By 2025, the annual average was almost twice its 2019 level.

Behind those numbers are two practical questions: who needs these homes, and who benefits from providing them?

For a homeowner, short-term renting offers a way to earn income while keeping some flexibility over their property.

A suite can accommodate paying guests between family visits. A house can earn money while its owner works away. Space that might otherwise sit empty can help cover the mortgage, heating bills and maintenance.

It also gives individual households a way to participate in the accommodation business. Alongside hotels and other providers, local hosts can earn a share of the money people spend while staying in Yukon.

There is meaningful spending involved. The territory’s tourism dashboard reports $6.52 million in entire-home short-term rental revenue between January and July 2026, up 24.8% from the same period last year.

That is booking revenue before expenses, rather than homeowners’ take-home income. Still, it shows the scale of the market.

The benefits become especially clear when someone needs to stay for work, medical treatment or family reasons.

The Yukon Medical Association lists Neighbourly North as an accommodation partner, offering booking priority and discounted rates to eligible visiting physicians. For someone considering a temporary assignment, having a furnished place ready on arrival makes one part of the move easier.

Families use these properties too. In a testimonial published by Neighbourly North, the Council of Yukon First Nations describes using its furnished rentals for families receiving support through Jordan’s Principle.

For a parent managing medical appointments or a difficult stretch between homes, the appeal is easy to understand: somewhere to cook supper, wash clothes and put the children to bed without everyone sharing one room.

Temporary accommodation cannot replace a permanent home. It can, however, make the time spent waiting for one considerably more manageable.

Some professional and family placements last months. They form part of the broader furnished-rental market and do not necessarily fall under the City’s short-term rental rules.

New zoning rules take effect October 1, 2026, with development permits, fire-safety requirements and an annual business-licensing framework. The City has not yet fixed the date when operators must hold a business licence.

In residential and Other–Agriculture zones, operators may initially have one short-term rental on a property where they do not live, or up to three where they do.

After October 1, 2027, new rentals in those zones will be permitted only on properties where the operator lives. Lawfully established rentals on other properties may continue under non-conforming-use provisions, subject to conditions. Commercial zones do not have the same residency requirement or numerical limits. The City describes short-term rentals as complete dwellings offered for stays typically shorter than 30 days.

Government intervention in housing can do more harm than good when it overlooks how property owners will respond. Added costs, restrictions and uncertainty can make people less willing to offer accommodation or invest in more of it.

As Whitehorse introduces its rules, preserving safe, useful accommodation and owners’ willingness to provide it should be part of the measure of success.

A short-term rental can help a homeowner pay the bills while giving a visiting professional somewhere to settle in or a family room to breathe. Those benefits deserve a place in the discussion. For the person checking in, having a kitchen, a bedroom and a little independence can make a temporary stay feel much more like home.

About the figures: Listing counts are Yukon-wide annual averages from AirDNA data published by the Government of Yukon. They measure recorded listings, not individual homeowners or newly created housing. The annual growth figure is compounded; growth varied each year.

Sources: Yukon short-term rental tourism indicators; Yukon Medical Association; Neighbourly North’s medical and emergency housing; City of Whitehorse short-term rental regulations, checked September 26, 2026; Diamond, McQuade and Qian, American Economic Review, 2019.

Somewhere above the treeline, a small, round animal is carrying another mouthful of plants across the rocks. Winter is coming, and the collared pika has a pantry to fill.

Photo: Collared pika, Denali National Park, Alaska. Jacob W. Frank / National Park Service, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

With rounded ears, short legs and almost no visible tail, a pika looks a little like a mouse. It is actually a relative of rabbits and hares. Yukon’s species guide puts it at just 15 to 20 centimetres long and about 160 grams.

You may hear one before you see it. Its sharp “meeeep” carries across alpine rock slopes, announcing that this particular patch is occupied.

Unlike many small northern mammals, pikas do not hibernate. They need food through the winter, so they spend the growing season gathering leaves, grasses and other plants into hay piles among the rocks.

The scale of that work is remarkable. A study of collared pikas in Yukon used a simulation to estimate a median hay pile of 5.5 kilograms of dry vegetation by mid-September. That is roughly 34 times the body weight of a 160-gram pika.

That figure is a modelled estimate, not a standard amount every pika gathers. But it gives a sense of the job facing an animal small enough to sit in your hand.

In one of the study years, survival was greatest among pikas that started gathering before the end of July. The benefit of an early start varied between years, but timing could matter as well as the size of the pantry.

By the time snow settles over the rocks, much of the season’s work is tucked away. The pika stays active, drawing on food it collected while the alpine was green.

The next time you hear that little call on a fall hike, look for a flash of movement and a mouthful of leaves. Someone has groceries to put away.

Sources: Government of Yukon, Collared Pika; Morrison and colleagues, research on food hoarding and winter survival in Yukon pikas.

The Games are over, but the benefits are still arriving.

A financial surplus from the Whitehorse 2026 Arctic Winter Games is contributing $400,000 to Yukon sport and recreation. The money forms part of a $2.05-million funding package announced September 24, alongside contributions from the Yukon government, Yukon Lotteries Commission and federal government.

It is a useful legacy: money from hosting the Games helping support the next round of athletes and community programmes.

Source: Government of Yukon, sport and recreation funding announcement.

Investment in residential building construction reached $383.8 million from January through July 2026, up from $234.1 million during the same period last year.

That is an increase of 63.9%, or nearly $150 million.

These figures measure construction spending in current dollars, rather than completed homes, and do not adjust for inflation. Still, they show considerably more money going into residential building work across the territory.

Source: Yukon Bureau of Statistics, Investment in Building Construction, July 2026, released September 21.

Adrien Grégoire is beginning his engineering studies at Queen’s University with a $120,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship.

The Porter Creek Secondary School graduate was one of 100 recipients across Canada this year. His school highlighted both his academic achievements and his leadership and mentorship in the robotics community.

A curiosity about how things work has taken him from Yukon classrooms to one of the country’s major undergraduate scholarships.

Sources: L’Aurore boréale’s profile of Adrien Grégoire; Queen’s University’s 2026 scholarship announcement.

September 27 to October 4

Sunday, September 27 · 7:30 p.m.
Yukon Arts Centre · $33 adults / $15 youth, including box-office fees

Make a night of it at Jazz on the Wing’s season opener, with the Trumpet Fiesta Quintet performing in the Arts Centre’s cabaret setting.

Concert details and tickets

Thursday, October 1 · 7 p.m.
Old Fire Hall, Whitehorse · $15 at the door; free for ages 19 and under

Bassist Adam Cripps leads the evening’s featured performance, followed by an open jazz jam. Come to listen, or bring your instrument and join in.

Jazz in the Hall details

October 1 to 4 · Performance times vary
Four downtown Whitehorse venues · Four-show pass $64 plus fees; $5 Fringe button also required for ages 12 and up

Eight shows, four venues and plenty of opportunities to take a chance on something unfamiliar. Build an evening around theatre, comedy or a variety show, then head to the After-Dark Cabaret.

For a daytime outing, the free Saturday Fringe Stage and Kids and Cookie Market run October 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Browse the programme · Passes and ticket information

Friday, October 2 · 5 to 6 p.m.
Whitehorse Nordic Centre ski stadium

Ski season starts on grass for this short sprint-racing event. Bring NNN boots and poles; grass skis are provided. Stay afterwards for food, drinks and a chance to compare techniques that probably will not help once the snow arrives.

Event details

Saturday, October 3 · 6 to 11 p.m.
Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre · $75

Dinner from Kit’s Kitchen, live music from The Leesiders and an evening supporting Humane Society Yukon. A night out with a good cause attached.

Fundraiser details and tickets

Friday, October 23 · Doors 8 p.m.; music 9 p.m.
The Kopper King, Whitehorse · $20 advance / $25 at the door

Three bands share the bill for a loud Friday night at the Kopper King.

Show details and tickets

Sunday, October 25 · 7:30 p.m.
Yukon Arts Centre · $33 adults / $15 youth, including box-office fees

Trombonist and composer Audrey Ochoa brings her quintet to Jazz on the Wing, with music drawing on swing, groove and Latin influences.

Concert details and tickets

Prices checked after Friday’s close, September 25, 2026.

Gold and silver slipped this week, while copper climbed. Among the Yukon-linked companies we follow, Sitka gained 6.0% and Snowline rose 4.9%. Banyan pulled back, but remained more than twice its year-end price.

Commodity prices are in US dollars. Gold and silver use spot prices; copper uses the LME cash benchmark.

Oil uses the latest available EIA spot price, September 22. Its weekly comparison starts September 15; its monthly comparison starts August 21. The TSX’s small weekly decline rounds to 0.0%.

Sources: Gold and silver prices; LME copper cash-price history; EIA WTI spot prices; TSX history; S&P 500 history; Canadian-dollar history.

Share prices are Canadian dollars, except Hecla, which trades in US dollars.

Sources: Stock Analysis historical prices, Yahoo Finance and StockInvest’s Metallic Minerals history. YTD figures for Gladiator Metals and Yukon Metals are omitted because their year-end baselines could not be reconciled.

Two deposits at Sitka Gold’s RC Gold project may be part of something bigger.

On September 21, the company reported drilling that extended mineralization east from Blackjack and west from Eiger. Between them, drilling in the Saddle Zone has traced near-surface gold across approximately 550 metres.

One Blackjack hole returned 141.5 metres averaging 1.93 grams of gold per tonne, including a richer interval of 80.6 metres averaging 3.20 grams.

The interesting question is whether continued drilling will connect these areas into one larger gold system. Sitka says the results support that possibility, although it remains to be established. The company had completed approximately 50,000 metres of its planned 60,000-metre drilling programme when it released the update.

Source: Sitka Gold’s September 21 drilling update.

About the board: Unless noted otherwise, weekly changes compare September 18 with September 25; monthly changes compare August 25 with September 25; YTD changes start December 31, 2025. Figures show price changes, excluding dividends, distributions, fees and currency conversion. Yukon Metals’ weekly and monthly changes are compounded from the provider’s daily percentage changes to avoid rounding its historical share prices.

Thanks for spending part of your Sunday with the Almanac.

Have you hosted a short-term rental or needed one for work, treatment or a family stay? Hit reply. I’d like to hear what that experience was like. Your stories help put people behind the numbers.

And if you enjoyed this edition, send it to someone who would appreciate a little more Yukon in their inbox.

Have a good week,

Michael