Farmland expansion planned near Dawson City

The Yukon government wants to expand the amount of agricultural land on the west side of the Yukon River at Dawson City.

People have been farming in that area for more than a century, and now the territorial government is proposing to designate nearly 120 hectares of land between the Top of the World Highway and the Yukon River for agriculture. 

The idea is the subject of a public meeting in Dawson City on Wednesday.

The local area plan for West Dawson and Sunnydale would boost the amount of farmland by about 20 per cent. Otto Muhlbach, who has been farming in Sunnydale since 2010, supports the government's move.

"There is so much potential for farm products even here in Dawson," he said. "In the summertime, sometimes grocery stores in town can't keep up with supplying the demand."

There are several competing land uses in the area, including proposed residential land, and the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation controls some settlement land.

Also, there are no services on the west side of the Yukon River. 

"I mean you're on the other side of the river. There's no bridge; there's no power," said David Murray,  the government's director of agricultural land management.

"But this will give us an indication of actually what the overall interest might be."

Murray said the pace of development will depend on public feedback. The proposal also requires approval from the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board.

"Any development that is really going to move forward to some kind of physical result needs a lot of dialogue with local residents simply to flesh out, at a greater detail, the specifics of the site," Murray said.

If there's support for the plan, new lots could hit the market next year.