Honourable senators, I rise today to pay tribute to one of the Yukon’s nation builders. It is a story of family.

Rolf Hougen’s father, Berent, arrived in the Yukon in 1906 — not on the train from Skagway, Alaska, but walking the White Pass railroad tracks to Whitehorse on a five-day journey. In Whitehorse, he built a log raft and headed down the Yukon River to Dawson, working with the big dredging companies and moving to Cripple Creek, Alaska, where he and a partner operated a hotel. In 1913, he sold out and returned to Norway, then married his wife, Margrethe, and immigrated to Canada a year later. In 1944, Berent and Margrethe returned to the Yukon with the youngest of their seven children, a 14-year-old boy named Rolf. The Alaska Highway was opening, the Yukon was booming and the Hougens opened a small store. Berent worked on the highway, while Margrethe ran the store with young Rolf’s help after school hours.

In 1947, Grade 12 graduate Rolf took over the full-time management, and in 1949, Hougen’s Limited became a real department store. In 1952, Rolf was one of the founders of the Young People’s Association. Three years later, he married Margaret Van Dyke of Edmonton.

The 1950s were a time of change. The isolated Yukon began to take on modern amenities such as cable television, with Rolf Hougen as one of the founding fathers of WHTV. A primitive television operation by any standards, broadcasting on just one black and white channel for four hours a day, the prerecorded programs were six months old. By 1965, the programs, delivered on tape by truck, were only a week old. Very young children — like myself — thought their fathers and brothers were amazing because they already knew the score of that hockey game on TV.

Over the next 20 years, the forward-thinking Rolf invested in the Yukon, developed the Klondike Broadcasting Company, or CKRW, and owned the local Ford dealership and the Arctic Investment Corporation. In 1978, Rolf was the driving force behind Cancom, or Canadian Satellite Communications Inc., that delivers multi-channel radio and television signals to more than 2,000 remote communities throughout Canada. At the time, his proposal to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, involved a whopping $38 million to set up and operate, expecting no profit for the first four years.

Rolf Hougen’s life is measured in more than business success. He was the president and founding member of the Whitehorse Board of Trade and the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous, as well as the founding chairman of the Yukon Foundation. Nationally, he was the former chairman of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Internationally, after spending a year in France with the family to learn French, Rolf served as the Honorary Consul of France for the Yukon. The President of France appointed him an Officer of the ordre national du Mérite.

Marg passed away in 2022 and Rolf Hougen in September of last year. Their family of six children and 18 grandchildren continue the tradition of business and public service to community to this day. Rolf, we are grateful for your dedication to our Yukon and your commitment to Canada.

Thank you. Shä̀w níthän. Mahsi’cho. Gùnáłchîsh.