The Yukon government has cut funding to YuWIN's online job board, a resource that some critics say is essential to the territory's business community.

Doug Graham, Yukon's education minister, said YuWIN's board was told a year ago that the territorial government would only fund the website for one more year, as the site had become essentially redundant.

"We found that the Canada job bank offered us a number of enhancements and a number of improvements that YuWIN simply couldn't match," Graham said.

'If [YuWIN board members] come up with something new that will provide an additional benefit to job seekers and employers in the territory, we’d be happy to look at it,' said Education Minister Doug Graham. (CBC)

The Canada job bank, Graham said, provides information to employers and prospective employees about labour market trends and data, and allows job seekers to create profiles and narrow their job search to specific regions, towns and cities.

"The functional use of the Canada job bank was excellent, it matched everything that YuWIN had to offer."

YuWIN received $125,000 last year for its job board, according to Graham. He said the government is willing to continue funding YuWIN, but not for a job search site. It must come up with "something new" for job-seekers, he said.

YuWIN site effective, says board member

Rick Karp, president of the Whitehorse chamber of commerce and a YuWIN board member, strongly disagrees.

"It doesn't do the same thing," Karp insists. "The business community in Whitehorse and Yukon need a local job board to find local employees."

The job search site 'is doing a lot more than just advertising jobs, its advertising Yukon as well,' said YuWIN board member Rick Karp. (CBC)

Karp said it can take a long time for employers to actually get their jobs posted on the Canada job bank, whereas YuWIN is fast and easy.

"Time is critical in this. YuWIN is instant. You phone YuWIN, you put it on YuWIN, and it's there within a couple of hours. So that's really effective," Karp said.

"YuWIN is averaging 50- to 60,000 hits a month, so it's not just dealing with Yukon, its going beyond."