No one has answered the Yukon's call to remove abandon vehicles.
No business registered a bid on the territorial government's latest contract to haul abandoned vehicles out of four rural waste sites, raising concerns about end-of-life vehicle recycling in Canada’s North.
The Government of Yukon tender closed May 11 and covered the removal, depollution, transport and recycling of end-of-life vehicles and scrap metal from waste facilities in Tagish, Champagne, Destruction Bay and Pelly Crossing.
The contract was scheduled to run for five months and involved sites located on the traditional territories of Carcross/Tagish First Nation, Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Kluane First Nation, White River First Nation and Selkirk First Nation.
Yukon government briefing notes describe transportation costs as one of the main barriers to recycling end-of-life vehicles in the North.
“In the Yukon and across the north, metal prices have to be high enough to overcome the costs of transportation to a recycling market,” one territorial briefing note states.
The same document cites a 2018 Zero Waste Yukon estimate projecting roughly 10,000 end-of-life vehicles in Yukon by 2036.
The briefing note also states some abandoned vehicles have been left “on roadways, in the forest and in waterways” and can create environmental risks if hazardous materials and fluids are not removed properly.
Municipal records from Haines Junction show the scale of the costs involved. A village document states Whitehorse-based Urban Auto Recycling quoted $900 per vehicle to depollute, bale and transport about 200 end-of-life vehicles from the community landfill.
The Association of Yukon Communities has called on the territorial government to study the environmental, social and financial impacts of abandoned and end-of-life vehicles, including electric vehicles and to develop a territorywide action plan.
Yukon Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn addressed the issue in the legislature April 23.
“Haines Junction had raised concerns because they had an awful lot of vehicles being dumped there,” Mostyn said. “We are working with Community Services, municipalities, Highways and Public Works and the Association of Yukon Communities to develop an environmentally and financially sustainable plan.”
Urban Auto Recycling says it depollutes vehicles before crushing and shipping materials south for recycling. The company reports removing 3,357 tonnes of material in 2023 and completing cleanup projects involving abandoned vehicles and scrap metal at several Yukon sites, including Deep Creek landfill and Boulder Road.
