If you are hurt at work in Yukon, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, get care, tell your employer right away, and make your own claim. In Yukon, the Workers' Safety and Compensation Board gives you up to 12 months to apply. In the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, one commission, the WSCC, serves both territories, and the law requires a claim within one year. Each system has a free advisor and a two-step route if you disagree with a decision.
The North has two workers compensation systems, not three. Yukon runs its own. The Northwest Territories and Nunavut share one commission, one Review Committee and one Appeals Tribunal. Here is how each works, and what to keep while you recover.
How do you claim in Yukon?
The Yukon Workers' Safety and Compensation Board lays out the steps in order:
- Get medical attention right away if you need it
- Report the details of your injury to your employer
- Your employer reports the injury to the board
- Apply to the board for compensation yourself
The board says you have up to 12 months to apply and recommends doing it as soon as possible. Reporting to your employer is not the same as applying. The last step does not happen because the others did, so ask the board whether an application from you is on file.
The board also states that it is an offence under the Workers' Safety and Compensation Act for anyone to discourage you from applying.
Benefits can include loss of earnings, medical benefits such as physiotherapy, medication, psychological treatment and First Nations or Inuit traditional healing, a permanent impairment benefit and, after 24 months of loss of earnings benefits, a retirement benefit. The board bases loss of earnings on your average earnings before the injury; ask your case manager how yours was set.
What if you disagree with a Yukon decision?
For a claim decision, ask the board to reconsider within one year after the date of the decision. If you disagree with the reconsideration, appeal to the Appeal Tribunal within one year after the date of the reconsideration decision. Other kinds of decisions, such as work refusals, run on much shorter clocks, so read each letter for what it is deciding.
The Workers' Advocate Office helps workers with reconsiderations and appeals of claim decisions at no cost. Our article on Yukon appeal deadlines lists every window.
How do you claim in the Northwest Territories or Nunavut?
The WSCC asks you to:
- Get first aid if you need it, and tell your employer right away
- See a health care provider and tell them you were hurt at work
- Complete and submit a Worker's Report of Injury as soon as possible
- Write down everything that happens, and keep every receipt
- Remind your employer to send an Employer's Report of Incident within three days
The Workers' Compensation Acts of both territories require a worker to report to the employer and to the commission as soon as practicable, and section 20 says no one is entitled to compensation unless the claim is made within one year of the injury. The commission can make an exception for a justifiable reason, but plan around the year.
Nunavut workers deal with the same commission as workers in the Northwest Territories, with an office in Iqaluit. If you are in a smaller community, the phone line is often the quickest way to start.
For help with the form, the tele-claim lines are 1-800-661-0792 in the Northwest Territories and 1-877-404-4407 in Nunavut.
For a worker who is totally disabled, both Acts set compensation at 90 per cent of net monthly remuneration, up to the yearly maximum the WSCC sets for each territory. Benefits can also include medical care, permanent disability awards, return to work services and reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs.
What if you disagree with a WSCC decision?
Start with the person who made the decision, because information may have been missed. If that does not resolve it, ask the Review Committee for a review within three years of the original decision, using the Request for Review form or a letter to the Registrar. Say whether you want an oral or a documentary hearing.
The next level is the NWT and Nunavut Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal in Yellowknife, which is independent of the WSCC. Its time limits and filing rules are set out in our articles on Northwest Territories WSCC appeal deadlines and Nunavut WSCC appeal deadlines. The WSCC's Workers' Advisor Office helps at no charge.
Before you file, the Review Committee encourages you to ask for a copy of your claim file, so everyone is working from the same documents. Your request should give your claim number, the date of the decision letter, why you disagree and what you think the decision should be.
Three years is long. The useful part of it is the beginning, while the people who treated you and saw the injury are easy to reach.
What if you were hurt on the road for work?
A collision on the job can involve both workers compensation and auto insurance. Our article on territories car accident claim deadlines covers the road side.
What should you write down?
- The date, time and place of the injury, and who saw it
- The date you told your employer and the name of the person you told
- The date you applied or sent your Worker's Report, and how
- Every symptom, appointment and treatment, including travel out of your community
- Every call with your case manager, with names and what was said
- The date printed on each decision letter and the date it reached you
- Every receipt for travel, meals, prescriptions and equipment
Keeping the record
Distance shapes recovery in the North: care can be a flight away and the tribunal can be in another territory. A written record travels with you. Recovering after a workplace injury in Yukon and recovering after a workplace injury in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut cover the whole process. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide keeps the daily record, alongside the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut Workplace Injury Companion Guides.
Why use Hurt Square?
Because care in the North can be a flight away, and a written record travels with you. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it all.
- Your account, written as it happens. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide has structured space for your symptoms, appointments, time away from work and every conversation with your employer and your board.
- The rules in your territory, in plain words. The Workplace Injury Companion Guide for Yukon, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut holds the board, the forms, the deadlines and the appeal routes there.
- Made for hard days. 123 pages and more than 1,200 fillable fields that work on your phone, tablet or computer, in plain language. When your union representative, worker adviser or lawyer asks for something, it is already there.
Both guides, $39 until 22 November. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide and the Workplace Injury Companion Guide for your territory, with the discount applied at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.
Get both guidesSources
- Yukon Workers' Safety and Compensation Board, Injuries
- Yukon Workers' Safety and Compensation Board, Benefits
- Yukon Workers' Safety and Compensation Board, Reconsiderations and appeals
- WSCC, Report an Injury
- WSCC, Request a Review
- Workers' Compensation Act, Northwest Territories, sections 17, 18 and 20
- Workers' Compensation Act, C.S.Nu., c.W-70, sections 17, 18, 20 and 38, consolidated to 1 July 2021
Last verified: 14 October 2026. If you find something out of date here, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.
This article is general information for people in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It is not legal or medical advice; the Acts and your decision letters govern.
