The journey to the Supreme Court

The Yukon government’s plan would have opened most of the Peel to industrial development. These actions were a betrayal of everyone who cared about the Peel, and the First Nations who had made huge concessions in return for a land use planning process, and the collaborative decisions it promised. In response, First Nation governments and conservation groups challenged the Yukon government’s actions in court. The late Justice Thomas Berger represented the Plaintiffs. In 2014, the Yukon Supreme Court ruled the Yukon government had violated its constitutional obligations. An appeals court upheld that the Yukon had violated the UFA, but granted the Yukon government a do-over, and another chance to open the Peel to widespread development. 

First Nations and conservation groups took the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which heard the case in March of 2017. In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that the Yukon government had violated the Umbrella Final Agreement, ordered the Yukon government to hold public consultations on the Final Recommended Plan, and set tight guardrails on what kinds of changes the Yukon could make to the Plan.