FIRST READING: In Canadian first, Yukon to get Indigenous-only parking spots

The new elders-only parking at Whitehorse General Hospital. Photo by Yukon Hospitals via Facebook

Article content

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

Article content

TOP STORY

Article content

Article content

As part of their stated commitment to “decolonization & Indigenization” in health care, the Yukon is debuting Indigenous-only parking spaces at all its three hospitals.

Article content

In a social media post last week, Yukon Hospitals announced that the territory’s hospitals would henceforth feature reserved parking spots marked “Respectfully Reserved for Elders.”

Article content

Article content

Reserved exclusively for “First Nation, Inuit, and Métis Elders,” the spaces are marked with signs featuring commissioned art from two Yukon-based Indigenous artists; one prepared a stylized image of two elders, while another prepared the accompanying text reading “respectfully reserved for elders.”

Article content

Article content

“These spaces are one way we are showing our commitment to Truth & Reconciliation, Decolonization & Indigenization,” reads a description by Yukon Hospitals.

Article content

The elder spots are set to be installed at the territory’s main hospital in Whitehorse, as well as at the Dawson City Community Hospital and the Watson Lake Community Hospital. Parking for everyone at all three hospitals is free.

Article content

They will be placed in lots whose only other designated parking is currently for staff or disabled users. Although the Whitehorse General Hospital notably has designated RV parking; a service for patients from distant communities driving in for scheduled procedures.

Article content

Yukon Hospitals, like many Canadian government and health-care authorities, has publicly embraced the notion that its facilities are shot through with “systemic racism” that can only be alleviated via differential treatment for marginalized groups.

Article content

Article content

“Systemic racism and intolerance is pervasive and deep-rooted.… We know it is present in Canada, in the Yukon and in our communities. It exists within our hospitals and health care system,” reads the agency’s 2022-2027 strategic plan.

Article content

Article content

That same plan has the hospital authority pledging to make “Yukon First Nations ways of knowing, doing and being part of everything we do.”

Article content

Up to one-third of patients at Whitehorse General Hospital are Indigenous, according to a Yukon Hospitals estimate in a 2016 newsletter.

Article content

And the territory, like B.C., has a policy of asking patients their Indigenous status in order to access culturally specific services such as access to traditional food or “traditional medicine.”

Article content

The system is largely based on the honour system, however. The patient guidebook to the Whitehorse General Hospital notes that the facility’s admitting desk will “ask every patient if they would like to identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit.”

Article content

“This will ensure that all persons that self-identify will have access to our programs,” it notes.

Article content

The threshold of Indigenous-only parking spots is a new one. Not just in the Yukon, but in Canada generally.