4 things to watch as the Yukon Legislative Assembly resumes

Ever since Yukon voters delivered the Liberals and the Yukon Party a tie on election night back in 2021, there's been a weird vibe in the territorial legislature.

The Liberals and the Yukon Party finished with eight seats apiece. First under Sandy Silver, then under current Premier Ranj Pillai, the Liberals rely on a confidence and supply agreement (CASA) with the three-person NDP caucus to stay in power.

The NDP pledged not to topple the government, in exchange for a long list of policy concessions.

Since then, the NDP have held up their end of the bargain, though not without some complaints. The New Democrats have also periodically joined forces with the Yukon Party to hamstring the Liberals on procedural matters. 

With MLAs reconvening in Whitehorse for the fall sitting, it's worth looking at a few of the main issues at play.

Can the Liberals cling to power?

On paper, the confidence and supply agreement runs for another year. But NDP Leader Kate White has gone from describing the NDP-Liberal relationship as merely hard work to openly musing about walking away. 

Among the irritants: the Liberals' handling of rural dump closures and their plan to spend tens of millions to rebuild the ore dock in Skagway to help the mining industry get product to market

Speaking to Yukon Morning Tuesday, White said Pillai can't take her party's support for the budget, which must still pass the legislature, for granted.

"I'm waiting to see what the fall brings, to be honest," she said.

Victoria Gold fallout

The government will face questions in the legislature about this summer's tailings spill at the Eagle gold mine near Mayo. 

For the Yukon Party, the big issue will be the Yukon government's decision to push Eagle's owner, Victoria Gold, into receivership.

"We as Yukoners now own this thing [the mine] and we have to figure out what to do with it," said Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon 

Expect White and the NDP, meanwhile, to push the government on new minerals legislation, for which her party has been lobbying for years, and changes to the Miners Lien Act, which governs how creditors, including local businesses, are paid back when mines fail. 

Crime in downtown Whitehorse

Businesses and residents in the capital have reported a sharp increase in crime over the summer, but the issue of downtown safety has been an issue for the Liberals from the moment they first took power in 2016.

The city's downtown emergency shelter has been the centre of attention, with the opioid crisis, the housing crisis, poverty, systemic racism and petty crime all factors. 

Dixon applauded the government's decision to hire more police as a partial solution. But he said the government should take a tougher line on drug and alcohol use in the shelter, and do more to decentralize services for marginalized people. 

Pillai said his government is trying to untangle the complicated knot of problems downtown. But he would not say whether the government will drop Connective, the non-profit that runs the downtown shelter, when the contract expires next year.

"All of those conversations are happening," he said. "I don't need to make an announcement today. But what I will say is we're leaving all options on the table."

Health care

It wouldn't be a legislative preview without the obligatory health care item.

No Canadian government is immune from the problems of the health care system; the Yukon is no different.

The Liberals have taken flak for everything from the shortage of family doctors, to surgical wait times, to Health Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee's fight with a local psychologist over billing.

The Yukon Medical Association, meanwhile, says the territory's health care system is "in the red." The association's president has called on the parties to put aside partisan differences and fix the system.

McPhee said the government's plan to establish a health authority will go some way to taking politics out of the system. But White is less optimistic. 

"It's not like Currie, Ranj and I are going to be able to sit around a table without someone else there to, kind of guide that conversation," she said.