Mediation for Custody in Yukon: Free Services and What to Expect

Before you spend thousands on a contested custody hearing, know this: the Yukon government provides free family mediation through the Yukon Family Mediation Service (YFMS). It's voluntary — nobody forces you into it — but it's one of the most effective ways to reach a parenting agreement without the financial and emotional cost of litigation.

How the Yukon Family Mediation Service Works

YFMS is operated by the Yukon Department of Justice and provides up to nine hours of free, confidential mediation for parents dealing with child-related issues. Sessions are typically distributed across one to four meetings of about two hours each.

A trained mediator helps both parents work through the specifics of their parenting plan — residential schedules, decision-making authority, holiday rotations, and communication protocols. The mediator doesn't take sides and doesn't make decisions for you. Their role is to keep discussions productive and focused on the child's needs.

Both parents must voluntarily agree to participate. If one parent refuses, mediation can't proceed.

Is Mediation Required in the Yukon?

No. Mediation in the Yukon is voluntary, not mandatory. However, the court strongly encourages it, and judges at the mandatory Family Law Case Conference often refer parents to YFMS before allowing a case to proceed to trial.

What is mandatory is the "For the Sake of the Children" parenting course — a separate requirement that both parents must complete. Mediation and the parenting course are different things with different purposes.

When Mediation Is Not Appropriate

YFMS mediation is legally contraindicated in family situations involving:

• Severe power imbalances where one parent dominates the other
• Coercive control — financial, psychological, or emotional abuse patterns
• Fear for personal safety — active domestic violence or credible threats
• Active substance abuse that impairs a parent's ability to negotiate meaningfully

In these cases, the court process provides procedural safeguards that voluntary mediation cannot — including the ability to seek supervised parenting time, protective orders, and structured communication protocols.

How to Prepare for Mediation

Your nine hours go fast. Parents who arrive unprepared spend most of their sessions debating basic scheduling logistics instead of resolving the harder questions.

Before your first session, work through:

1. Your proposed residential schedule — which days, what transition times, who handles transportation. Have at least two schedule options you'd consider acceptable.
2. Decision-making preferences — which major decisions (health, education, religion, extracurriculars) you want joint authority on and which you'd accept sole authority from the other parent.
3. Holiday and vacation priorities — rank which holidays matter most to you, because you're going to trade.
4. Communication logistics — how you want day-to-day co-parenting communication to work (app, email, text) and what the boundaries are.
5. Child support figures — both parents' incomes and a preliminary calculation using the Federal Child Support Guidelines tables. Arguing about numbers wastes mediation time when the guidelines produce a formula-based answer.

From Mediation to Court Order

If mediation produces an agreement, the mediator can draft a Memorandum of Understanding that both parents sign. This document captures the terms but isn't a court order.

To give it legal teeth, you take the agreed terms and convert them into a Form 53 (Consent Order), which gets submitted to the Supreme Court of Yukon for a judge's desk review and signature. Once signed, it's fully enforceable.

If mediation doesn't resolve everything, it still narrows the issues. Going to court on two unresolved points is dramatically cheaper and faster than litigating six.

Private Mediation Options

If YFMS's nine free hours aren't enough, or if you want a mediator with specific expertise, private family mediators in Whitehorse charge CA$250–$400 per hour. Some offer packaged rates from CA$2,000 to CA$13,300 depending on complexity.

Even at private rates, mediation is a fraction of what a contested trial costs — Whitehorse family lawyers bill CA$250–$700 per hour, and a full custody trial can run tens of thousands.

The Yukon Child Custody & Parenting Plan Guide includes pre-mediation worksheets designed to help you organize your proposals before your YFMS sessions — so you spend those nine hours finalizing an agreement, not debating calendars.

See more Yukon guides →