Court tosses Yukon gov’t case against YESAB over recommendation on exploration project – CBC

Mar 05, 2025

Chief justice rules board’s recommendation against Peel watershed project ‘not amenable to judicial review’

The Yukon Supreme Court has tossed the territorial government’s case against the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board over the board’s recommendation against a proposed exploration project in the Peel watershed.

In a newly-published decision, Chief Justice Suzanne Duncan dismissed the government’s petition against the board, commonly referred to as YESAB, on procedural grounds, writing that the recommendation at the centre of the case was “not amenable to judicial review.”

The government filed a legal petition in 2023 after YESAB’s Dawson-area designated office recommended against a proposal by exploration company Silver47 to do five years of work around Michelle Creek. The area is in the southern reaches of the Peel watershed near the northern tip of Tombstone Territorial Park and on the traditional territories of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun.