Whitehorse Wins the Inflation Competition

Good morning from Whitehorse,

Winter is fast approaching. The yellow leaves have arrived, which feels a little unnecessary before August is even over. My wife was covering her garden this week ahead of a fairly early frost warning. The good news is that ski season is getting closer.

This week, we look at why Whitehorse prices are rising faster than in any other Canadian city measured, celebrate 22 rehabilitated animals returning to the wild, and learn why Yukon’s autumn landscape turns mostly gold instead of red.

We also share an awesome Yukon business, talk about the busy month for White Gold Corp., and have enough upcoming events to keep us occupied until the snow.

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Thanks for reading. Let’s dive in.

If Whitehorse is starting to feel more expensive, you’re not imagining it, prices are rising faster than anywhere else. The city’s inflation, how fast prices are rising, is outpacing the rest of Canada.

Whitehorse’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.5% higher than a year earlier. Halifax came next at 4.8%, followed by Calgary at 4.2%. Vancouver matched the national rate at 3.0%, while Toronto sat at 1.7%.

A big chunk of that upward pressure on the CPI basket came from our power bills. Electricity prices in Whitehorse were 18.1% higher than last July. Across Canada, electricity only rose by 3.6%. Thankfully, the power has been out a lot in August, so that should help.

Yukon Energy’s rate increases began in July 2025 and are almost complete: a final increase of about 4% is scheduled for January 1, 2027.

Because the increases compound, they add up to approximately 34% between June 2025 and January 2027.

Figures represent the estimated effect on a typical residential bill before government rebates. Cumulative increases are measured from June 30, 2025.

Electricity makes up approximately 3.2% of Whitehorse’s CPI basket, representing roughly three cents of every dollar in measured consumer spending. That may sound small, but an 18.1% price increase added approximately 0.6 percentage points to Whitehorse’s overall inflation rate.

In other words, electricity accounted for roughly 11% of Whitehorse’s 5.5% inflation rate. It made a noticeable difference, but most of the territory’s inflation still came from elsewhere. If we adjust for increases in electricity costs, Whitehorse would still have ranked second among Canadian cities.

Here is what goes into Whitehorse’s CPI?

Electricity is included within the shelter category and is weighted at about 10%.

Sources: Yukon Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, July 2026, Statistics Canada, CPI basket weights, Yukon Energy, 2025–2027 General Rate Application, Yukon Utilities Board, Board Order 2026-08 and Statistics Canada, Table 18-10-0004-01. Statistics Canada, Table 18-10-0007-01.

The Yukon Wildlife Preserve’s rehabilitation program admitted 39 native animals from 19 species during 2025–26. Of those, 22 were returned to the wild, including a Canada lynx, two golden eagles, three Canada geese, and five red squirrels.

The Preserve also welcomed more than 35,000 visitors, its highest annual attendance on record.

A good year all around for the preserve, and a great place to take kids!

Source: Yukon Wildlife Preserve, 2025–26 Annual Report.

Longtime Yukon educator and art collector Ron Carr has donated an awesome collection of 22 works to the Yukon Permanent Art Collection.

Eighteen of the pieces are currently displayed in the Jim Smith Building, including works by Ted Harrison, Jim Robb, Mary Pudlat, Keith Wolfe Smarch, and other northern artists.

You can see the exhibition in the building’s main foyer at 2071 Second Avenue in Whitehorse. It will remain on display through October. The Jim Smith Building is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

After the exhibition closes, the pieces will be displayed on a rotating basis in publicly accessible locations throughout the territory.

It is a generous gift and a good way to ensure that a private collection can now be enjoyed by Yukoners for generations. The output of art in the Territory is extremely impressive.

Learn more about the exhibition

Sources: Government of Yukon exhibition announcement and Jim Smith Building visitor information.

Yukon Wildland Fire Management has sent four initial-attack crews, a division supervisor, and an agency representative to help fight the Mukluk Fire near Tok, Alaska.

The deployment comes after Alaskan firefighters recently helped Yukon crews manage a wildfire near the Alaska Highway border crossing. With fire activity currently low in Yukon, personnel can return the favour while the territory maintains adequate staffing at its own fire bases.

Wildfires do not pay much attention to borders. Fortunately, neither does northern mutual aid. Despite strained trade relations, northern communities continue to help each other.

Source: Government of Yukon.

The first yellow leaves of late August are here, and plenty of Yukoners are calling them rude. Summer barely feels settled in, yet the trees are already hinting at winter. Before the territory turns white, though, it puts on one last show, with hillsides glowing yellow, gold, and orange.

But compared with eastern Canada, one colour is noticeably missing: red. Why is this?

The simplest answer is that we have different trees. Yukon forests contain just eight native tree species: trembling aspen, balsam poplar, paper birch, white spruce, black spruce, lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, and tamarack. Willow is usually left off the list because, botanically speaking, many Yukon willows are classified as shrubs. Weird, I know.

And those tree species help explain our autumn colours. Aspen, poplar, and birch usually turn shades of yellow and gold. Tamarack needles turn a brilliant gold before falling, while spruce, pine and fir stay green through the winter.

The maples responsible for some of eastern Canada’s most spectacular reds simply aren't part of Yukon's native forests.

So where do the colours actually come from?

Leaves look green all summer because they contain chlorophyll, the pigment trees use to absorb sunlight and make energy. As the days get shorter and temperatures cool, trees produce less chlorophyll and begin withdrawing valuable nutrients from their leaves.

As the green chlorophyll disappears, pigments that were hidden underneath all summer become visible, giving leaves their familiar yellow and orange colours.

Red is a little different.

Many plants actually produce a red pigment called anthocyanin in the fall. How much they produce depends heavily on many conditions, such as the amount of sugar trapped in the leaf. Yukon trees can’t afford to leave any sugar in the leaves and therefore are less likely to turn red.

If you want to see red you need to look down. Shrubs such as dwarf birch can turn beautiful shades of red and burgundy, especially across alpine and subalpine landscapes.

But when autumn arrives in the Yukon, gold and orange usually win the territory.

Sources: Government of Yukon, Treed Vegetation Associations, Government of Yukon, Ecoregions of the Yukon Territory, Natural Resources Canada and U.S. National Park Service.

I bought a belt from Norwild at the Fireweed market, and it is the best belt I have ever owned.

Norwild makes leather goods and outdoor gear by hand in its Whitehorse workshop, including belts, hats, mitts, wallets, and bags. Its belts are made from thick, full-grain leather and designed to improve with age. This is the type of product that will last multiple generations.

Mine feels incredibly solid, looks great and was made here in the Yukon.

You can see Norwild’s work in person at the Fireweed Community Market, held Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m. at Shipyards Park through September 24.

Shop Norwild | Instagram | Facebook

Maker Faire Yukon

Sunday, August 30 | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, Whitehorse | See event page for admission details

The final day of the only Maker Faire north of 60 features combat robots, blacksmithing, copper jewelry, woodburning, and hands-on demonstrations.

It is part science fair, part workshop, and part excuse to watch small machines fight.

Explore the Maker Faire schedule

Fireweed Market Animal Day

Thursday, September 3 | 3 to 7 p.m.
Shipyards Park, Whitehorse | Free

The Fireweed Market becomes noticeably furrier this week. Meet Yukon Quest puppies and experienced sled dogs, talk with the race team, and get a close look at the equipment used in one of the North’s greatest endurance races.

Animal Day details

First Friday Art Crawl

Friday, September 4 | 5 to 7 p.m.
Downtown Whitehorse galleries | Free

Arts Underground opens two new exhibitions by Whitehorse artists Rebecca Manias and Jill Aalhus, with food and drinks provided.

The evening is also part of the First Friday Art Crawl. Visit Arts Underground, Yukon Artists at Work, and Northern Cultural Expressions Society, collect a stamp from each gallery, and enter to win a $100 Air North gift certificate.

Exhibition and art-crawl details

Yukon Farm Fair

Saturday, September 5 | 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Yukon Agricultural Community Fairgrounds | $5; children under 12 free

The Farm Fair brings together livestock, local food, Yukon producers, stiltwalkers, clowns, scarecrows and the Veggie Monster Parade.

There is even an Ugliest Vegetable competition, which feels like the sort of agricultural excellence Yukon should continue encouraging.

Parking is limited, but a free shuttle will run from Shipyards Park.

Farm Fair details

Candlelight: Queen vs. ABBA and Hans Zimmer

Saturday, September 5 | 6:30 and 8:45 p.m.
Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, Whitehorse | Tickets from $43

A string quartet performs the music of Queen and ABBA at 6:30 p.m., followed by an 8:45 p.m. tribute to film composer Hans Zimmer.

From Dancing Queen to Dune in one evening.

View the Candlelight concerts

Cat Clyde

Sunday, September 13 | 7 p.m.
Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse | $30

Ontario singer-songwriter Cat Clyde brings her raw blend of folk, blues, country and rockabilly to Whitehorse.

Get tickets

Basia Bulat

Friday, September 18 | 7 p.m.
Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse | $45

Three-time Polaris Music Prize finalist Basia Bulat performs an intimate solo concert featuring guitar, piano and her signature autoharp.

Get tickets

Northern Nights Dark Sky Festival

Friday, September 18 to Saturday, September 19
Mät’àtäna Män (Kathleen Lake) | Programs free; camping extra

Kluane’s tenth annual dark-sky festival features Indigenous sky stories, telescope viewing, bannock, lantern-making, beadwork, live music and family activities beneath some of the darkest skies in the territory.

Northern Nights festival details

Gold and silver finally took a breather this week. Gold fell about 3.3%, silver dropped 3.7%, and oil gave back 4.2%.

Copper was the exception, edging higher and remaining one of the strongest major commodities of 2026.

Despite the drop in precious metals, Yukon mining shares were surprisingly resilient. Several companies on the board finished higher, and some of the year-to-date returns are becoming hard to ignore.

Friday did most of the damage to precious metals.

Gold suffered its worst week since June after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh warned that inflation remains a concern, pushing investors to increase their expectations for another U.S. interest-rate hike. Silver followed gold lower.

Oil also dropped 4.2% for the week, but that number needs some perspective. WTI remains dramatically higher than it was at the beginning of the year following months of turmoil in the Middle East.

North American stock markets were much calmer. The TSX eked out a small weekly gain, while the S&P 500 rose roughly half a percent and is now up 12.7% in 2026.

White Gold is having quite the August

White Gold Corp. takes this week's Market Mover.

Shares finished the week around $2.39, up roughly 15% in five trading days, nearly 60% over the past month, and approximately 96% since the beginning of the year.

And there has been plenty happening behind the share price.

Earlier this month, White Gold released the first Preliminary Economic Assessment for its flagship White Gold Project, about 95 kilometers south of Dawson City.

The study estimated an after-tax net present value of approximately $1.9 billion, a 38% internal rate of return, and a 1.7-year payback period, using a gold price of US$3,600 per ounce.

The company has since continued optimizing the study, with its latest update putting the estimated IRR at 40.7% and the payback period at 1.5 years.

White Gold also received final court approval to spin out a collection of its Yukon copper, molybdenum, tungsten, and other critical-mineral properties into a separate company called W2 Critical Minerals. W2's planned financing has also been increased to $10 million.

The transaction still requires final regulatory approvals, including approval from the TSX Venture Exchange.

A Preliminary Economic Assessment is still an early-stage study, not a mine approval. But between the economics of the White Gold Project, rising investor interest, and the W2 spin-out, it has been a busy month for one of Yukon's better-known explorers.

Prices and returns are as of the August 28, 2026 market close and are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. Five-day returns compare August 28 with August 21. One-month returns compare August 28 with approximately one month earlier. YTD measures the change since December 31, 2025. Returns reflect price movements and exclude dividends. Figures are rounded. This section is for information only and is not financial advice.

That is all for this week.

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Have a great week,

Michael