Environment Minister John Edzerza has leukemia.
The 62-year-old is checked into the bone marrow ward of Vancouver General Hospital, hospital officials confirm.
Edzerza was diagnosed late last week, after he was medevacked from Whitehorse on Monday, he told CHON FM. Edzerza started chemotherapy on Saturday.
He expects to remain in hospital for the next six weeks. While Edzerza is absent, Elaine Taylor will serve in his place as Environment minister. If Taylor in incapacitated, the job falls to Premier Darrell Pasloski.
Edzerza has served as McIntyre-Takhini’s MLA since 2002. He has the rare distinction of crossing the floor not once, but twice.
He started as a Yukon Party MLA, quit to join the NDP for a three-year stint, then returned to the government fold in the autumn of 2009.