Campaign trail notes: What Yukon's political parties had to say March 29

All three major parties had policy announcements Monday ahead of the Yukon territorial election on April 12. Here's a roundup of those promises:

Liberals

With another staycation summer looking likely thanks to the pandemic, the Liberals are promising to offer a boost to the tourism industry.

Dubbed the "Great Yukon Summer," the idea is to encourage Yukoners to travel inside the territory.

The Liberals plan to do this by offering incentives for businesses to offer Yukoner rates (some hotels in the territory already do this). It also plans to grant tourism operators access to the government's marketing agencies, putting up $500,000 for local events and supporting a planned music festival.

"The Great Yukon Summer campaign will encourage Yukoners to explore the territory while supporting our extensive network of tourism operators," said Jeanie McLean, the Liberal candidate in Mountainview.

"This is a great way to kickstart our tourism sector as they prepare to welcome back visitors from around the world." 

McLean also played up $15 million in tourism support the Liberals announced last fall, although they've taken criticism from the Yukon Party for not explaining how all of that money will be spent.

Yukon Party

Housing is a big issue for a lot of voters and on Monday the Yukon Party weighed in with its housing policy. 

Leader Currie Dixon said a Yukon Party government would work with First Nations, municipalities and the private sector to open up more land for development.

"Here in Yukon, one of the main issues and main drivers of housing cost increases has been the lack of affordable land," Dixon said. "And so that's why we're supporting such a focus on land development, to ensure that there's an adequate supply."

The Liberals have placed blame for the housing crisis on the previous Yukon Party government for slow-rolling new lot development and cancelling an affordable housing project. 

The Yukon Party says it would also bring back subsidies for down payments and first-time home buyers that were axed by the Liberals. And, Dixon said, his party would start planning work with the City of Whitehorse to look at development options for after the Whistle Bend subdivision is completed.

NDP

The NDP released its entire, 80-page platform Monday.

Among other things, the NDP would adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as Yukon government policy.

"A Yukon NDP government will respect First Nations as the equal partners that they are by making YFN consent a requirement for all resource development anywhere on the traditional territory of Yukon First Nations," White said.

The NDP would also increase taxes on people earning more than $250,000 per year by one percentage point, through creating a new tax bracket. It would also implement a two per cent tax on fly-in workers and raise resource royalty rates.

Those rates vary from sector to sector and year to year, but for placer mining, they're calculated at 2.5 per cent of the value of the gold. That value is set at $15 per ounce.

White also said the NDP would take the money from future projected surpluses and put it back into the economy.