Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 10

Commissioners of the Yukon, 1897-1918

by Edward F. Bush

Epilogue

The constitutional changes and economic cutbacks of 1918-19 did not mean the end of the Yukon — indeed far from it — but for Dawson this period marks the end of an era. The future was to belong to Whitehorse, though Dawson lingered on as the titular capital reduced to the dimensions of a village.

The post-1918 period is, therefore, treated briefly and in general terms in this study. It is not implied that the men who served the territory as chief executives, under various titles, are unworthy of closer attention. All were capable and dedicated officials to our knowledge. Rather, for the sake of cohesion and symmetry, the detailed account should end at this point.

Until 1932 the gold commissioner remained the territory's chief executive, responsible to the minister of the Interior. Many of his functions were served without reference to the minister — calling and dissolving the council, school appointments, letting of contracts for road work, administration of the liquor ordinances. By 1928 the gold commissioner's salary, effective 1 April, was raised to $7,140 per annum. Then by order in council dated 30 June 1932, the powers and duties of the gold commissioner were transferred to the comptroller at a salary of $2,620 per annum and $1,500 allowances. The office of gold commissioner per se was abolished on 20 February 1934.

A considerable reorganization of the federal government took place in 1936, with the disbanding of old departments and the constituting of new ones. By order in council,¹ confirmed 3 December, the office of comptroller was redesignated controller, to serve as chief executive of the territory at an increased salary of $4,620 per annum with $2,000 per annum expenses. From this year the Yukon passed under the authority of the new Department of Mines and Resources. The department was renamed Resources and Development in 1951, to which the Yukon's chief executive was still responsible. The office of commissioner was revived in 1947:² J. E. Gibben's appointment effective 13 July 1948 conferred on him the revived title of commissioner. In 1952 the Yukon council, or the "Legislative Council" as it was then known, was increased from three to five elected members, with the functions of the commissioner unchanged.

For Dawson, the most northerly capital in the British commonwealth, the sands of time were running out. Whitehorse had long surpassed it as a communications hub and the centre of an active copper mining region with a population much larger than that of Dawson. The last session of the Yukon council was held in Dawson in the autumn of 1952; the following spring the territorial capital was transferred to Whitehorse. Since 1954 the administration of the Yukon has fallen to yet another of the continuously re-organized and re-named federal departments, Northern Affairs and National Resources, latterly again reconstituted as Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

In an unintentional note of anti-climax, the fate of that once proud and sumptuous residence, Government House, must be recorded. It will be recalled that it was closed in 1916 on Black's departure overseas. The office then being abolished, the residence remained boarded up, as forlorn as a fun fair in the off-season. Its elegant interior no longer accorded with the reduced circumstances of the territory. A practical use was to be found for it, however, and one with which people were unlikely to quibble. In January, 1950, St. Mary's Hospital, dating from gold-rush days, burned to the ground. The Sisters of St. Anne, casting about for alternative accommodation, took a 21-year lease on the commissioner's residence³ for use as a home for the aged. Extensive work was required to put the long unoccupied residence in habitable state, but the sisters hoped to move in that summer. The ground floor accommodated the inmates, the second storey the sisters, and the third served as a nurses' residence. A year later, in November 1951, the Yukon council submitted a resolution to the minister of resources and development requesting federal support for the reacquisition of the property. The proposal was that the federal government match the $35,000 put up by the territorial government to be paid the Sisters of St. Anne for their surrender of the lease. Apparently this proposal had not met with the minister's approval since the memorial submitted by the council speaks of "reconsideration." Council wished the territorial government itself to secure the residence and operate it themselves as an aged persons' home.

The council, however, was thwarted in its purpose, for in 1955 the sisters of St. Anne bought the property outright. It is a fair surmise that Ottawa balked at matching the local authorities' offer, and so the sisters hung on to the property. In any case, the one time Government House remained in the hands of the order, presumably as a home for the aged, until 1963 when the property reverted to the commissioner of the territory;⁴ the good sisters vacated the residence on St. Patrick's Day, 1964.

One does not like to assume that this is the end of the story of Dawson, a community which once was a household word throughout the world in those brief frenetic summers when adventurers from the four corners of the earth flocked by the thousands to Eldorado just below the Arctic Circle. But here this report must leave it, for the vital part of its theme, the story of the commissioners who administered this burgeoning territory from the most northerly capital in the British empire, has been told.