The Yukon Ombudsman has completed a formal investigation into the Whitehorse single-family residential lot lottery process. The investigative report concluded that the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) was not meeting the intention of the legislation, resulting in an unfair lottery process. 

The Ombudsman’s office received a complaint about how the practice of using proxies in the residential lot lottery makes it difficult for those following the rules to obtain a lot. This complaint was treated as a formal investigation due to broad public interest.

Residential lottery lots must first be sold to individual applicants who are building a home to live in, as per the Lands Regulations.  The investigation found that many developers and individual applicants sidestep the rules by having people (proxies) enter the lottery on their behalf; developers looking to make a profit and individual applicants hoping to increase their chances of winning a lot to build their future home. EMR is aware of this common practice but is not taking effective action to prevent it from happening. Also contributing to the issue is the lack of enforcement mechanisms provided for in the Act. 

“The residential lottery process for the Whitehorse region is unfair because people abusing the system are more likely to win over legitimate applicants who aren’t using proxies” said Jason Pedlar, Yukon Ombudsman. “The spirit and the intent of the regulations are not being honoured, and this is unfair to those who follow the rules and want to build a home to live in.”

It was recommended that prior to commencing future lot lotteries, the Department demonstrate that it is meeting both its legal obligations and the intention of the legislation and that any measures contemplated be provided to the Ombudsman for comment before implementation. Several options were provided to the Authority as examples on how to meet these recommendations and are detailed in the report.

The Authority’s ability to implement these suggested recommendations and effectively enforce the rules is restricted by insufficient legislation. To remedy this, the Ombudsman suggests the Legislative Assembly or Executive Counsel amend the legislation to allow for enforcement mechanisms and to restrict eligibility requirements to be in line with the purpose of the legislation. They can also reevaluate who they want to sell Crown land, and the mechanism for its disposition.

The Department has reviewed and accepted our recommendations.