To open the question period on the final day of the 2025 Yukon legislature spring sitting, Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon told MLAs that the latest stats from 2024 out of the Yukon Bureau of Statistics have “blown a hole” in the Yukon Liberal Party’s narrative about the territory’s economy.
The stats report, released May 1, 2025, suggested the Yukon’s economy had shrunk by 3.3 per cent driven by a 32-per cent decrease in mining and 12-per cent decrease in construction, Dixon said.
Dixon cited the Yukon’s real gross domestic product, or GDP, decline as the worst in the country.
“The report that came out today did leave us a little bit flummoxed as far as the numbers on construction,” Finance Minister Sandy Silver said in response.
Silver recognized the economic contraction because of the heap leach failure at Victoria Gold Corporation’s Eagle Gold Mine in June 2024.
Receiver Pricewaterhouse Coopers Inc., or PwC, was appointed by the court to take over the mine site following the cyanide-laden landslide. The Yukon Party has argued the mining company should have stayed in control of the site; the government maintains that the mining corporation wasn’t doing what needed to be done and was running out of money.
“But it’s the retail side of the construction side that has us scratching our heads a little bit,” Silver said.
Silver said the government’s own numbers suggest construction is growing in 2025, up by 2.5 per cent or $61.3 million.
“We are working with the folks from Statistics Canada to reconcile these numbers,” Silver said. “We also note that the mining numbers are not just in Yukon but also in the Northwest Territories. The member opposite (Dixon) didn’t mention that part.”
Dixon asked the premier if he agrees with “Statistics Yukon that our economy is in a mess or does he agree with the Minister of Community Services” that the economy is “roaring.”
Silver admitted concern around the numbers because they don’t line up with the territorial government’s data and analysis.
But, amid tariffs, which Silver said they must be vigilant about, he denied the economy is suffering as the government has “diversified the economy,” with the decline contained to the mining sector. For example, Silver cited labour market data and a “rebounding” tourism sector helping to push up other retail, accommodation and recreation activities.
Following the question period and ahead of a vote on the $2.36-billion budget, party leaders with seats in the House took a look back on the sitting while speaking with reporters in their respective private offices. It was potentially the last time the 35th Yukon Legislative Assembly will sit before territorial elections are called.
Witnesses from PwC, the Yukon Hospital Corporation and Yukon Energy Corporation appeared for questioning by MLAs. Petitions were presented and responded to, including Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn's response to Raven ReCentre's petition in which he noted the recycling centre's leadership was informed about and accepted a change order that saw the processing of community recycling shift from Raven ReCentre to another Whitehorse-based organization. While tributes took place every day, limited ministerial statements were permitted by a majority of House leaders.
A power failure meant the legislative assembly made last-minute changes to the schedule to make up for lost time.
Over the last week, Premier Ranj Pillai said, the governing Liberals were being criticized for things that have been happening for longer than the nine years his government has been in power and that were taking hold not just in the Yukon but across Canada like organized crime, downtown safety issues and a “toxic drug crisis.”
“It was almost like we were being blamed for humanity,” Pillai said.
“Official oppositions were really flat out of the gates, I think, probably for the first half of the sitting. I think that some of the things that they focused on, like PwC, did not land where they wanted.”
Earlier that week, Yukon Party health critic Brad Cathers had cited a News story that contained data from the Yukon coroner about 18 of 20 people dying in association with Housing First sites in Whitehorse, including at the Whitehorse Emergency Shelter, due to or in relation to substance use.
Pillai said these kinds of deaths aren’t new to the Yukon capital’s core.
“As one RCMP officer said to me, before, people were dying. Before, they were just dying on the waterfront, or they were dying at the clay cliffs,” Pillai said. “I think what's made people really uncomfortable now is we've seen we don't want to lose anybody, but now it's even front and centre because we've got so many people trying to support individuals where we didn't have that before.”
In terms of government legislation that passed, the Residential Tenancies Act replaces the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Pillai indicated a fine balance was found before passing Bill 46.
Other government bills that passed and received assent this sitting:
- Bill 47, the Act to amend the Income Tax Act (2025), which adds a refundable Fertility and Surrogacy Tax Credit and more.
- Bill 48, the Early Learning and Child Care Act, which replaces the Child Care Act.
- Bill 49, the Technical Amendments (Estates, unclaimed bodies and related matters) Act (2025), which amends statutes related to dead bodies and simplifies issues related to powers of attorney.
- Bill 50, the Inclusive Yukon Families Act, which amends the Children’s Law Act to expand the definition of “parent” and remove gendered language and more.
- Bill 216, the Third Appropriation Act 2024-25, which allows for spending up to $140 million.
- Bill 217, the First Appropriation Act 2025-26, which authorizes $2.36 billion in government spending following the May 1, 2025, budget vote.
- Bill 218, the Interim Supply Appropriation Act 2025-26, which allows for spending from April 1, 2025, to May 31, 2025.
As for non-government business, Yukon NDP Leader Kate White was proud her private members’ bill, Bill 310, the Act Respecting the Yukon Medical Association, passed unanimously with the support of all MLAs.
“It's an example of listening to folks with those solutions and those proposals and advancing them,” White said. “A little bit unheard of.”
White had hoped to get through a second bill in respect to the independence of the offices of Elections Yukon, the child and youth advocate and the ombudsman, the information and privacy commissioner and the public interest disclosure commissioner.
“It turns out that there's only so much like a human can do in a time,” she said.
White takes pride in the legislation moved forward under the confidence and supply agreement with the governing Liberals. Her squad will build on that reputation.
“Those are all NDP-driven initiatives. We're going to get a lot of the government telling us now that they would have done it without us, but they had already been a majority government,” she said, “and they hadn't done it right. So, they can say now that that was always a priority, but they hadn't done it. And so, I'll take, you know, we'll take full credit.”
For his top priorities, the Official Opposition leader said his party keeps pressing on health issues based on what they have heard from health professionals and patients, complaints from downtown businesses around crime rates and the availability of lots, land and housing.
Dixon mentioned the appearance of PwC and measures the Yukon Party has pushed around the “ongoing economic war” with the United States.
“Overall, I thought it was a productive sitting,” he said.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
