Abstract
Throughout the north, the majority of residents live in sub-Arctic administrative centres south of the Arctic Circle. These ‘Arctic Gateways’ are critical administrative and service centres through which pass most goods and services to and from the Arctic. Although not Arctic communities in the strict sense, they still must deal with issues of environmental change such as melting permafrost, and threats from flooding and forest fires. While doing so, they also must cope with expanding economic development, tourism, and growing demands for services throughout the Arctic region. Findings are presented from a CAVIAR case study of adaption and vulnerability of one such ‘Arctic Gateway’ carried out in partnership with the staff and Council of the City of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The study is based on extensive, in-depth interviews with elected officials and senior and operational staff of the City of Whitehorse, as well as with representatives of the Yukon Territory Government (YTG), First Nations, inter-governmental bodies, and NGOs responsible for administrative and resource management throughout southern Yukon. We explore key decision processes, institutional linkages and relationships within the civic government structure of the City of Whitehorse as well as with other jurisdictions and levels of government, including two First Nations upon whose traditional territory the City is situated. We find that existing adaptive strategies regarding climate change reside frequently in the processes of decision-making, planning and organizational culture as they are applied in the context of other changes facing the City and Yukon Territory. Thus, we explore the processes by which policies, decisions and adaptive responses take shape in both routine and uncommon or surprise situations around key areas of civic concern related to infrastructure, public health and safety, land-use planning, emergency preparedness and the environment. The case study is linked to the City’s ongoing Integrated Community Sustainability Planning process which provides the temporal basis for exploration of future changes and exposure-sensitivities as defined by various governance institutions. The focus on the application of governance as process and context provides a glimpse of the potential (institutional) capacity of Whitehorse to manage and cope with complex social-ecological changes taking place in the north now and in the future.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
These once iconic rapids now lie behind the Whitehorse Dam, beneath the still waters of Schwatka Lake. To the north the City is bounded by Lake Laberge made famous in the poetry of Robert Service.
- 2.
At the time of writing employment statistics for the City were not available, however, a monthly report produced by the Yukon Bureau of Statistics for the Territory as a whole provides a useful proxy. Public sector employment in the Territory is substantial and over the past fifteen years has been increasing from 37% of total employed to almost 42% of the labour force in 2009 (Yukon Bureau of Statistics 2009).
- 3.
The historic jump off point for thousands of miners bound for the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s. Skagway now boasts a deep-water port built to accommodate large cruise ships drawn by the rich cultural and natural history of the area.
- 4.
In the wake of the closure of the Faro mine in 1997 (Yukon Bureau of Statistics 2009).
References
ACIA. 2005. Arctic climate impact assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Adger, W.N. 2003. Social capital, collective action and adaptation to climate change. Economic Geography 79(4): 387–404.
Agrawal, A. 2008. The role of local institutions in adaptation to climate change. IFRI Working Paper W081-3. Prepared for the Social Dimensions of Climate Change, Social Development Department. Washington, DC, International Forestry Resources and Institutions Program, IFRI Working Paper W081-3, School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.
Berkes, F. 2003. Navigating social-ecological systems: Building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brinton, M.C., and V. Nee, eds. 1998. The New institutionalism in sociology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Brinton, M.C., and V. Nee. 2001. The New institutionalism in sociology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Church, A., and J.J. Clague. 2009. Recent deglacierization of the upper Wheaton River watershed, Yukon. In Yukon Exploration and Geology 2008, ed. L.H. Weston, L.R. Blackburn, and L.L. Lewis, 99–112. Yukon : Yukon Geological Survey.
Dietz, T., E. Ostrom, and P.C. Stern, 2003. The Struggle to Govern the Commons. Science 302: 1907.
Furgal, C., and T.D. Prowse. 2008. Chapter 3: Northern Canada. In From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007, ed. D.S. Lemmen, F.J. Warren, J. Lacroix, and E. Bush, 448. Ottawa, ON:Government of Canada.
Government of Canada 2002. Bill C-39, The Yukon Act. URL: http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/LS/371/371c39-e.htm (accessed Jan. 24th, 2010).
Hall, P., and R.C.R. Taylor. 1996. Political Science and the 3 New Institutionalisms. MPIFG Discussion Paper 96/6. Köln, Germany: Max Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung.
Hallett, T., and M.J. Ventresca. 2006. Inhabited institutions: Social interactions and organizational forms in Gouldner’s Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy. Theor Soc 35: 213–236.
Hotimsky, S., R. Cobb, and A. Bond 2006. Contracts or scripts? A critical review of the application of institutional theories to the study of environmental change. Ecology and Society 11(1): 40. On-line journal available at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art41/ (Accessed 22 February 2010).
IPCC 2007. Forth Assessment Report (AR4) Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ed. M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden, and C.E. Hanson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Janowicz, J.R. 1994. The impact of climate change on stream flow in the Upper Yukon River Near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
Lipovsky, P., and C. Huscroft. 2007. A reconnaissance inventory of permafrost-related landslides in the Pelly River watershed, central Yukon. In Yukon Exploration and Geology 2006, ed. D.S. Emond, L.L. Lewis, and L.H. Weston, 181–195. Yukon: Yukon Geological Survey.
MacDonald, A. 2008. Expanding the Federation? The Ongoing Process of Devolution in the Yukon Territory. Federalism Journal 9: 2008. ON, Canada: Queen’s University/Royal Military College of Canada.
Matthews, R. 2003. Using a Social Capital Perspective to Understand Social and Economic Development in Coastal British Columbia, Horizons. Policy Research Initiative-Government of Canada. 6(3): 25–29.
Nee, V. 1998. Sources of the New Institutionalism. In The New institutionalism in sociology, ed. M.C. Brinton, and V. Nee, 1–16. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
North, D.C. 1990. Institutions, institutional change, and economic performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O’Riordan, T., and Jordan, A. 1999. Institutions, climate change and cultural theory: towards a common analytical framework. Global Environmental Change 9: 81–93.
Ogden, A.E., and J.L. Innes. 2008. Climate change adaptation and regional forest planning in southern Yukon, Canada. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change. doi 10.1007/s11027-0089144-7
Ogden, A.E., and J.L. Innes. 2009. Application of structured decision making to an assessment of climate change vulnerabilities and adaptation options for sustainable forest management. Ecology and Society. 14:1. URL: http/www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art11 (Accessed 22 February 2010)
Ostrom, E. 2005. Understanding institutional diversity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Portes, A. 2006. Institutions and development: A conceptual reanalysis. Population and Development Review 32 (2): 233–262.
Roland, G. 2004. Understanding institutional change: Fast moving and slow moving institutions. Studies in Comparative International Development 38: 109–131.
Vincent, K. 2007. Uncertainty in adaptive capacity and the importance of scale. Global Environmental Change 17:12–24.
Werner, A T., and T.Q. Murdock 2008. Changes in Past Hydro-climatology and Projected Future Change – Summary Report for the City of Whitehorse, 23. Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium.
WCED – World Commission on environment and development 1987. Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Young, O.R., L.A. King, and H. Schroeder. 2008. Institutions and environmental change: Principle findings, applications and Research Frontiers. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
YTG (Yukon Territory Government) 2009. Population Report June 2009. Information Sheet No. 58.33 – July 2009. Yukon Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved online January 29, 2010. URL: http://www.eco.gov.yk.ca/pdf/population_jun_2009.pdf
Yukon Bureau of Statistics 2010. Yukon Employment January 2010. Information Sheet No. 34. 211 – February 2010. pp. 9. URL: http://www.eco.gov.yk.ca/stats/pdf/employment_jan10.pdf. Retrieved online April 27, 2010.
Acknowledgements
Many persons in the Council and Administration of the City of Whitehorse and in the Government of Yukon were generous with their time and advice. However, we particularly wish to thank Mayor Bev Buckway and City Manager, Dennis Shewfelt from the City of Whitehorse for their time and for their enduring support. Similarly, in the Government of Yukon, we benefited from the advice of Carl Burgess, Intergovernmental Relations Officer, Executive Council Office, and Johanna Smith, Senior Analyst, Climate Change Secretariat, Department of Environment.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Netherlands
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Matthews, R., Sydneysmith, R. (2010). Climate Change and Institutional Capacity in an ‘Arctic Gateway’ City: A CAVIAR Case Study of Whitehorse. In: Hovelsrud, G., Smit, B. (eds) Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9174-1_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9174-1_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-9173-4
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-9174-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)