Yukon opposition party leaders are demanding the Education minister apologize to a neighbourhood group that feels like its stance on school relocation plans was misrepresented in a recent government document.
According to the Takhini Neighbourhood Association, it hasn’t taken a position on relocating a downtown school to the same site as another school in Takhini, despite a government document claiming the chosen site was “preferred” by the group.
“This is not true,” reads a press release issued Oct. 9 by the group.
“The Association has never formally expressed any support or preference regarding the school’s placement in our neighbourhood.”
A recent letter from the association president was sent to Education Minister Jeanie McLean and carbon copied to the opposition leaders, then made public when it was tabled in the legislature.
The letter calls on the Yukon government to correct the error in the document and sums up the association’s concerns to serve as a “framework” ahead of an Oct. 18 meeting.
The group expressed disappointment in the government for publishing the document on choosing the future site École Whitehorse Elementary School without notifying the group until after the opposition parties notified them about it and the media reported on it.
The document claims the chosen option was "preferred by the Takhini Neighbourhood Association."
The government document went live in late September and is dated October 2024. It expressed the government's preference for moving École Whitehorse Elementary School to the Takhini Elementary lot in an arrangement that would displace two existing softball fields.
On Sept. 26, the News obtained a copy of the report, which the government had published online ahead of schedule. The News reported on the document the following day, citing the Takhini group’s supposed preference for the site.
The government held a press conference on Oct. 1 to officially announce the plan.
The neighbourhood association's correspondence outlines its concerns about the lack of public engagement on the matter, describing the process as “closed-door decision-making," and the notion that the government “explicitly prevented the Association from sharing information about the project with members of our community.”
Particularly concerning is that the decision to relocate the school was made prior to any traffic impact analysis, per the group.
“This represents a fundamental flaw in the decision-making process that will have a long-term impact on our neighbourhood,” reads the release.
Another concern for the group is the loss of green space.
McLean confirmed her team has a meeting set with the neighbourhood association for later this month. She indicated the government document wouldn't be edited prior to that meeting.
McLean noted that while there hasn’t been public consultation on the specific site, the government has “worked closely with all of our partners.”
The government has been pressed on school relocation plans repeatedly by the Yukon NDP and the Yukon Party in the legislative assembly so far this fall.
On Oct. 10, Yukon government cabinet communications provided a snippet of correspondence to McLean from a September 2023 letter attributed to the neighbourhood association’s president.
It reads: “While I was initially in favour of the proposed location of the school at the corner of Range Road and University Drive, I am not in favour of this location if it necessitates building a road through an area of McIntyre Creek greenspace that is heavily used by Takhini and Porter Creek residents.”
Cabinet communications confirmed there are no plans to build a road through the McIntyre Creek greenspace.
The Takhini Neighbourhood Association is now a part of the project advisory committee, which was formed in 2022 to help collaborate and exchange ideas between involved stakeholders on school relocation plans.
Andrew Robulack, director of the neighbourhood association, told the News the group joined the project advisory committee this year, after the riding's Yukon NDP MLA lobbied on their behalf.
The committee is made up of representatives from the neighbourhood group, school council and staff members, and the City of Whitehorse.
A city communications manager told the News the city needs to give approval at three key steps before the territory’s project can unfold, and there will be opportunities for public input at those junctures.
Yukon Party Education critic Scott Kent cited the News' story in his line of questioning to the minister.
"Why did the minister suggest earlier this week that looking at another location wouldn’t be possible because it would need rezoning when the lot that she and her colleagues have chosen must also be rezoned?" Kent probed.
McLean responded that the project is still in the early phases.
"As we work toward the conceptual design phase, we will also begin discussions with the necessary officials at the City of Whitehorse, which I have said many times. Part of that will include this discussion around some of the rezoning that needs to happen. It still is an educational reserve," she said.
When asked by Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon in the legislature, McLean wouldn’t commit to holding off on issuing a construction tender for the new replacement school before the territorial elections scheduled for 2025.
A press release from the Official Opposition indicates the minority Liberal government doesn't have the mandate from Yukon voters to finalize the choice. In the release, Dixon suggests the decision could "tie the hands" of a future government.
A timeline on the government website states "Construction of the new school (on the Takhini Educational Land Reserve) will start after the completion of Whistle Bend Elementary School, which is expected to be finished in 2024." The timeline notes building a new school usually takes two to three years.
In the legislature, Dixon noted his party has been hearing from groups misrepresented (the Takhini Neighbourhood Association) and left out (Softball Yukon) as the Liberals scrambled to consult before making this “controversial” decision.
When Dixon asked why not consider another location elsewhere, Premier Ranj Pillai suggested the opposition would be unhappy with any spot the government picked.
Pillai said the government is looking for another location — to build another downtown school.
Yukon NDP Leader Kate White, the MLA who represents the Takhini riding, called the three options "crappy" in the legislature on Oct. 3.
A week later, White made a reference to last fall, when the premier accused the opposition parties of an “unholy alliance” gatekeeping government speech. That was after opposition MLAs voted together on a motion requiring ministerial statements to get majority house leader approval before going to the floor.
"I find myself in the curious position of repeating a message from my colleague from the Yukon Party. Earlier in this session, the member for Copperbelt North described fears that the Liberal government would charge ahead regardless of what anyone tells them about École Whitehorse Elementary School replacement," White said.
“The unholy alliance on this side of the House has heard a lot of complaints from the Liberals about how we have shut down democratic process by denying them their ministerial statements, but their actions regarding so called consultation seem to be accomplishing that shutdown quite nicely on their own."
The minister wouldn't say when a full public consultation would occur. Instead, she said, "After listening to all of the debate, it’s important to return to our first principle. We are building this school to benefit children."
White and Dixon want the government to at least look at or consider other options.
“But what we're going to see is, I guess, is probably very similar to what we saw with the Yukon Party going into the 2016 election, where they had big, huge commitments and big, huge promises that got us up with an F.H. Collins (Secondary School) that's the wrong size, right?” White said.
White indicated to reporters that the Liberal government’s initial announcement in March 2022 about the downtown school moving to Takhini came to the surprise of White and her colleague, Yukon NDP Whitehorse Centre MLA Lane Tredger.
White confirmed via her communications lead that she was told about that initial announcement on the day of the announcement.
That’s despite the no surprises stipulation in the confidence and supply agreement, or CASA, between the NDP and the Liberals that’s ultimately keeping the Liberals in power.
“You would think that in this confidence and supply agreement, when it says no surprises, that they would have said to the two MLAs who, you know, helped prop them up, one who represents downtown and the other who represents Takhini, that there would have been, like, a heads up or maybe a conversation,” White said.
While the relationship with the Liberals has been frustrating at multiple critical junctures, like the government offering millions for an ore dock in Alaska, White said she holds onto CASA because it’s not about her — it's about Yukoners.
White indicated that she doesn't think a similar deal would've been possible between the Yukon NDP and the Yukon Party given their lack of common ground.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
