Yukon government scours youth service office, citing 'plumbing issue'

Senior officials within Yukon's Health and Social Services Department temporarily shut down a walk-in service for at-risk Yukon youth, citing plumbing and heating as the reason,CBChas learned.

Integrated Supports for Yukon Youth (ISYY) has an office on 2nd Avenue in Whitehorse and all its workers were suddenly sent home last Friday.

The service is a one-stop shop for youth who may need help navigating government services includinghealth care, finding housing and gettingID.

They closed all the blinds.- Worker atIntegrated Supports for Yukon Youth

A worker at ISYY sent an email to the deputy minister, Stephen Samis, on Sunday, after being told workers had to leave the office and could not return until Tuesday. CBCis not naming the worker to protect their identity.

The worker said it was the assistant deputy minister, the director of family and children's services, and two other staff who forced staff to leave.

"These four people showed up and began scouring the office ... They closed all the blinds in the office," the workersaid in the email toSamis.

All this treachery has devastated my office.- Worker atIntegrated Supports for Yukon Youth

The email goes on to say that the assistant deputy minister joined the workers in the parking lot and told them "it was due to plumbing and heating problems."

The worker also referencedthe recent suspension of ISYYmanager Jane Bates in their email.Bates wassuspended without pay just weeks after disclosing alleged wrongdoing within the department to the deputy minister.Bates is appealing that suspension.

"Deputy minister, all this treachery has devastated my office," the worker wrote."We are all literally sick about this and no one seems to care about how we have been impacted and how our service to the public has been impacted."

"We are all watching and waiting to see if you will do the right thing."

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The worker said Bates cared about helping at-risk youth.

"Removing her like this has hurt ... many vulnerable young people in the community."

Union receives complaint from ISYY worker

The president of the Yukon Employees' Union, SteveGeick,said late Friday afternoonhe received a phone message from an official at the Public Service Commission, saying that people at ISYY offices were being sent home.

"He didn't say it was a plumbing issue," saidGeick.

Geicksaid he then received a complaint from a worker fromISYY on Sunday.

"It sounds pretty secretive. The blinds got closed and no one was allowed into the building," he said."The optics of it at this point in timewith people coming forward and then managers being released, suspended,that type of thing... to our members, is horrible."

After hearingfrom the worker fromISYY,Geicksaid hesent an email on Mondayto the minister responsible for the Public Service Commission, RichardMostyn, asking what was going on.

"I thought that something was a little amiss. So I followed up with the minister,Mostyn, as well with the Public Service Commission," Geick said."The Public Service Commission [was] actually quite surprised to hear that this whole thing had transpired."

Geick said he learned from a worker at ISYY that an apology was delivered on Tuesday to the ISYY workers.

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"And then the next thing we heard was that the assistant deputy minister ... along with the director of staff relations from the Public Service Commission had gone down there and basically offered an apology that ... either miscommunication or the wrong message was given," said Geick.

"But basically that there was no plumbing and heating problem.It was basically, sorry we misled you kind of idea."

Geick said he wonders if the youth that use the ISYY services will now feel safe going into the office to speak with staff.

"Are they going to feel safe going in there when they hear this kind of thing is going on? If I was a kid that was using that service, I wouldn't want to go back there," he said.

CBCrequested interviews with Health and Social Services Minister Pauline Frost, Mostyn, and senior officials from the Health Department, but was told they weren't available.