Premier Ranj Pillai is keen on discussing and debating a piece of legislation that his Yukon Liberal Party government will be introducing in the Yukon Legislative Assembly that looks to “transform” the health-care system.
“This is the key work that will be able to drive the transformation of our health-care system,” he told the News on March 4. “We heard from many Yukoners [that] a health-care authority was definitely the transition that they thought that would be helpful in meeting our goals.”
Aging nursing stations will need an injection of support and expanding the number of hospital beds will be required, per Pillai. To him, it’s about augmenting existing infrastructure as opposed to building new.
“For anybody who goes through the Putting People First report, what you’ll be able to draw from that is that there’s a real need to ensure that for particular services that we decentralize, and so we need to ensure that our communities have the right infrastructure,” he said.
The three territorial party leaders with seats in the legislature gave a preview of the spring sitting of the legislative assembly in interviews with the News by phone in the days leading up to MLAs convening in the house on March 7, when the government drops the 2024-25 budget.
Cost of living, housing affordability and availability, and pressures on the health-care system continue to be issues that Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon hears about from Yukoners through the media and casework with constituents.
Dixon will be watching for the level of investment in health, particularly the Yukon Hospital Corporation, referring to the findings released in a report on the hospital’s financial situation.
“That’s really concerning to us,” he said.
Dixon will be keeping an eye on the fiscal picture of the government’s finances.
“The availability of public financing dictates the priorities of the government, and it’s very easy to say things are a priority, but if there’s no money to spend on them, that’s a concern for everybody,” he said.
Dixon has outstanding questions following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments in Parliament about investing in a bridge over the Yukon River in Dawson City and a “flurry of clarifications” from the prime minister’s office and the Yukon government.
“There’s a ton of questions there as to what happened, why it happened [and] why there was no communication about this publicly,” he said.
Dixon will be pressing the government to join other provinces and territories like the Northwest Territories that are pushing for carbon tax exemptions like what the Atlantic provinces achieved on home heating oil.
Dixon continues to suggest that Yukoners are desperate for a change in territorial government via an election.
But a confidence and supply deal between the Yukon Liberal Party and the Yukon NDP stands in his way.
“We’ve heard a lot of very critical things from the NDP over the last few months. Things like that saying that the health care system is crumbling. They have grave concerns about the leadership of the Liberals,” according to Dixon.
For example, Dixon cited the government spending millions on an ore dock to get minerals to the ocean in Skagway, Alaska, and $1 million on a temporary landlord assistance program.
“But despite all that, they have continued to prop up the government, and I think the biggest question leading into the spring sitting will be whether or not the NDP continue to prop up this government or whether they’ll give Yukoners the opportunity for change that they have so clearly been asking for,” he said.
Access to health care, the cost of housing and the “affordability crisis” are the most pressing issues for Yukon NDP Leader Kate White.
“The answer that we get from Yukon government is ‘well, there’s a worldwide crisis of health care or a shortage of health-care workers.’ But that isn’t good enough. That can’t be the only answer,” she told the News on Feb. 27. “Other jurisdictions are tackling the problem in different ways and having more success than we are.”
White wants to incentivize education for young people in the health-care field to bring them back to work in the territory for a contracted amount of time.
“I think there’s a lot of possible solutions, but that’s not what we get from the Liberals. So, we’ll be pushing on some of those solutions.”
White will be paying close attention to hospital corporation funding in the budget to make sure that it goes up but also how it’s being spent.
“The hospital corporation misappropriated funds, and that is also a big deal. So, what is the consequence of that? How were they able to make those decisions? How was that, you know, related to the Yukon government? How did that happen? I think it’s still an issue, and how do we make sure it doesn’t happen going forward?” she asked.
“It’s not just that there was a funding shortfall. It’s also that the hospital corporation made decisions that were not, like, weren’t within the rules.”
On housing, White sees an opportunity for the Yukon Housing Corporation to build on relations with First Nations development corporations.
“We need to look at a different way to do housing, and I think that’s where the development corporations will really play a key role,” she said.
When asked if she plans to vote in favour of the government’s budget, White noted her commitment under the confidence and supply agreement.
“There’s a lot of things in that agreement still that I think are really important, which is why I’ve continued on to this point,” she said. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Expect transformational spending on health care, the largest investments in housing projects in the Yukon’s history and the education system to be bolstered by the upcoming budget, according to the premier.
Pillai said he hasn’t wavered from the top three items he identified when he took on the premiership: health care, housing and education.
“This budget has a key focus on all those three top priorities,” he said. “I feel that this capital budget will continue to invest in areas that had seen gaps previous to our government being elected.”
Pillai believes the vision — and the numbers, with more than 190 housing units being pledged over the next three years, ramping up to 3,900-plus homes within the next decade — the Government of Canada and the City of Whitehorse recently laid out on the housing front is “achievable.”
“The Yukon government will have a role to play because in order to build any of these larger subdivisions, you’re going to need to ensure that you have that partnership,” he said.
Pillai hinted at announcements coming “soon” around private sector development in the rental market.
“I think we’re going to see very significant changes when it comes to affordable housing stock over the next 24 months,” he added.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com