The Yukon government has slipped from a forecasted $48.2-million surplus to an actual non-consolidated annual deficit of $42.7 million — a $90.9-million decrease — for the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to the latest public accounts tabled in the legislature.
The latest public accounts, which represent actual revenues and spending for the previous fiscal year, don’t account for the Eagle Gold Mine slide situation, which occurred in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
According to the government, three main factors are driving the change from the forecast: increased expenses to address environmental liabilities including Minto Mine remediation and in response to fires and floods, delivering health-care services and increased funding related to a new collective agreement between the Yukon government and the Yukon Employees’ Union.
The Yukon’s non-consolidated net financial debt on March 31 went up $120.7 million from the projection in the main estimates to $495.5 million.
“Net financial debt reflects the difference between the government’s total financial assets and its liabilities, which include long-term obligations such as environmental remediation and the retirement of government assets at the end of their useful life. It does not represent how much the government has borrowed or needs to borrow,” reads a Yukon government press release.
“The increase in net financial debt is mainly the result of the Government of Yukon’s proactive approach to addressing environmental liabilities in the territory.”
Finance Minister Sandy Silver accused the former Yukon Party government of saddling Yukoners with long-term debt compared to the short-term lines of credit the current government is relying on.
Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon told reporters the public accounts paint a “pretty dire picture” of the Yukon’s finances given several economic indicators are heading in the wrong direction.
“The financial position is so difficult, and they are so cash poor that they need to borrow on a short-term basis in order to keep the lights on and meet their payroll obligations. That is extremely troubling,” Dixon said.
“They should slow down their spending.”
Dixon argued that throughout the former Yukon Party government’s 14 years in power, five of which he was there for, the government spent money on the Mayo B hydro plant and community hospitals in Watson Lake and Dawson City.
“We invested in infrastructure and took on long-term debt to pay for that,” he said.
When asked what he’d cut, Dixon suggested the government doesn’t need to make cuts; just slow down the growth rate in government, for example, when it comes to personnel.
“You don't need to cut positions. You need to slow down on the rate of growth,” he said.
Yukon NDP Leader Kate White has been an MLA under both Yukon Party and Yukon Liberal Party governments.
From White’s perspective, the long-term debt repayments because of Yukon Party decisions are worse than the short-term lines of credit that Silver described.
“Under the Yukon Party, there were lots of times where there was the big fanfare around having a surplus, but the reality was, is that they were spending money that they didn't have with no plan to pay it back,” she said.
White argued the two hospitals were built “without consultation” and Mayo B was the “most expensive power generation, I think, in the country at that point” for the amount of megawatts it provided.
White suggested that, with the Yukon government’s close to $2-billion budget, the territory floats its own auditor general, as opposed to relying on Canada’s auditor general. She noted that would give the opportunity for more audits. Currently, the national office conducts an audit of public accounts and one audit a year of programming, per White.
Local economist and News columnist Keith Halliday offered his take by email on which numbers he believes are most helpful to assess the Yukon government’s finances.
“More important than the composition of the debt is the Net Financial Assets figure (on a non-consolidated basis) if you want to gauge the Yukon government's financial position,” Halliday wrote.
Halliday pointed out the Yukon government's net financial assets were estimated at $93 million on March 31, 2017. That compares to Silver’s most recent supplemental budget, which estimates the net financial assets on March 31, 2025, to be minus $530 million, or $623-million lower than the 2017 figure.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
