Skip to content

LETTERS: A loophole for landlords, power backups, COVID-19 case counting

This is an open letter to the Yukon government,
27205374_web1_210407_YKN_insight_letters-wb_1

This is an open letter to the Yukon government,

I received an eviction notice late October for no reason other than my landlords cannot raise the rent (even if I agree to signing a new lease) without new tenants. The rent cap? Includes a massive oversight that needs to be addressed, as you all know, I’m sure.

Reviewing the legislation, is obviously highly needed and I don’t believe just banning evictions without cause is going to solve the whole issue, a whole legislation review needs to be done.

The rental cap should be pinned to inflation. I don’t write legislation so obviously I’m no professional, but we need to be listening to the professionals and take other jurisdictions and their legislation under consideration because clearly ours is a mess. The way the legislation is currently written doesn’t benefit anyone.

How this happened is very disheartening.

I feel betrayed and abandoned by my government, I am of the exact demographic this legislation is supposed to protect!

The campaign promise gone wrong, and then… just ignored? Why are we not addressing this? Admit a mistake was made because people’s homes are being ripped from them through no fault of their own. I understand the NDP maybe had a bigger plan with what they wanted to change in the Act, maybe it was cut short by the current government only allowing so much to change, and I’m sure there’s rumors that it was on purpose to make NDP look bad, I’m sure there’s lots of speculation on how this happened … however at the end of the day I don’t care, I don’t care to point fingers. I don’t care about the little political disagreements that higher government officials have when you play your chess game, I don’t care- this is MY life you messed with and moved on leaving me homeless when I’ve done everything I was supposed to do.

I have fought so hard to give myself this life against odds most people could never begin to understand, and I did it, I succeeded. Until YG got involved.

Yes, this may be my landlord’s decision, but in every other jurisdiction the government protects us.

It’s my government now that is failing me. Fix it.

Signed,

a Whitehorse resident

Please rethink battery backups

The clearing of trees has begun for the batteries for power backup on the south access. I am for alternative power sources, just saddened by placement of these source so close to a lot of important infrastructure.

I also still find it amazing that all our power sources are so close together. I am still trying to understand this.

We are in an earthquake zone! It is reasonable to think that the dam could go in a strong earthquake. So what would happen to the LNG plant in the quake or the aftermath?

Now we are putting the lithium batteries at the end of a runway (remember the jet on 911?), and less than 1/4 mile from and LNG plant.

Apparently there is only a slim chance that either of these could explode but if one goes what are the chances of a chain reaction? I guess a lot of us won’t have to worry about it because there won’t be a hospital for survivors to go to, if there are survivors within the blast radius.

Please rethink the battery back up before placing them at the end of the runway and so close to the LNG plant so we will have some backup power for THE rest of Yukon.

Thank you

Loretta Westman

Confused by COVID-19 case counting

I am very interested in how many of Yukon’s MLAs could answer questions about how Yukon collects and reports statistics regarding COVID-19 cases. For example:

Friday, Nov. 12: New cases, 41; Active cases, 156.

Monday, Nov. 15: New cases, 97; Active cases, 164.

On the face of it, these data do not look at all convincing. We have 97 new cases today but the active case count is only eight more than Friday? How is this possible? How would you explain this to one of your constituents?

Does this mean that 88 cases were “resolved” between Friday and Monday and therefore removed from the Active cases?

What definition does Yukon use for “resolved” cases?

Is this the same definition as Health Canada?

If not, why not?

Who makes the decision about when a case can be removed from the Active list?

Don’t bother telling me it is based on “the science” as Tracy-Anne McPhee tried to do in the Legislative Assembly today. I’ll come back and ask you whose science and where is the reference.

I am concerned that the on-going obfuscation regarding COVID-19 numbers will lead to more people NOT trusting government sources. Given the widespread conspiracy theories around this issue, this is not a good thing.

I am one of those people who want answers to my questions and this is an expectation I have for all MLAs irrespective of political affiliations.

Yours sincerely,

Janet Webster



About the Author: Black Press Media Staff

Read more