The Yukon NDP has announced it will be hosting public meetings in every community in the territory this winter as part of an annual tour.
This year’s circuit, called the Big Ideas for Yukon tour, will give Yukoners the chance to tell the NDP caucus about their priorities at the start of this election year.
“We’re a territory of opinionated and engaged people, and I love having the chance to listen to as many people as possible as we make big decisions about Yukon’s future,” NDP Leader Liz Hanson said in a news release.
During last year’s tour, drug and alcohol issues and the planned 150-bed continuing care facility in Whistle Bend were among the top concerns raised by Yukoners.
This year’s tour will begin with a meeting in Teslin on Feb. 2, followed by a meeting in Watson Lake on Feb. 3. The rest of the schedule hasn’t yet been released.
The NDP plan comes on the heels of a similar announcement from the Yukon Party, which has already begun its own community tour to discuss budget priorities. On Tuesday, Premier Darrell Pasloski poked fun at the NDP announcement on social media, tweeting that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!”
In response, Hanson pointed out that Pasloski’s community tour in fall 2015 was his first, while she has organized a tour every year since the 2011 election.
She also questioned why the government is calling its community meetings a budget tour, claiming that “most of the budget is already written.”
“Is this a budget tour or a sales job?” she asked in an email to the News.
Information about the NDP tour can be found at www.yukonndpcaucus.ca/big_ideas_for_yukon.