With large territorial deficits looming, the Yukon Party is challenging the the premier’s decision to add more than 200 full-time positions to the government’s payroll.

The Yukon government will add 201.75 full-time equivalent positions to the public service this fiscal year, the premier revealed Tuesday in the legislature.

This could push the total number of full-time Yukon government employees to above 4,800 in 2017-18 – one year before the government expects to run a $48.9-million deficit.

“The premier is blaming his red ink in future budget years on this previous (Yukon Party) government but has already significantly increased the size of the public service,” Yukon Party Finance critic Brad Cathers said in an interview today.

“Premier (Sandy) Silver, when in opposition, was very critical of increases to the public service, and told Yukoners that repeatedly, and yet now in office, again he’s breaking his word.”

The 201.74 new full-time equivalent jobs in 2017-18 are “mostly for teachers,” Silver said in the legislature Tuesday.

The Department of Education is getting 135.71 new full-time equivalent employees in 2017-18, said Silver.

It’s unclear whether these jobs will be in Whitehorse or in the communities.

He added that 88 of those hires – which are teachers and teaching assistants – were made by the previous Yukon Party government.

Cathers disputed Silver’s claim that 88 of those new positions were Yukon Party hires in an interview this morning.

He doesn’t believe the number is accurate, and challenges the premier to back it up with evidence.

In the fourth quarter of the 2016-17 fiscal year, there were 4,623.1 full-time equivalent Yukon government employees, cabinet spokesperson Janine Workman confirmed today.

The rest of the new full-time staff are spread throughout the government.

Additionally, several full time staff are being shuffled out of one department and into another.

Each new full-time position added to the public service comes with the long-term costs of pensions and benefits, noted Cathers.

“All of these things are impacts on the government’s future financial picture.”

In the House on Monday, Silver suggested the Yukon Party made similar decisions about hiring full-time staff.

The government added about 167 full-time positions between the fourth quarters of 2015-16 and 2016-17, he said.

When asked whether the Yukon Party indeed created 167 new full time equivalent jobs in the last year of its mandate, Cathers said “I’m not sure about the numbers on that.”

The former Yukon Party cabinet minister conceded that there are times when growing the public service is warranted.

“Continuing care and home care are areas that we did that,” he said.

“We do recognize that there are times when to meet the needs of a growing population, that there are some new hires required.”

What’s concerning to the official Opposition, said Cathers, is that the Liberal government is expanding the Department of Finance by adding 10.6 full-time positions this fiscal year.

The government estimates it will spend $1.13 million on personnel in Finance, up 54 per cent from last year’s estimated $844,000 personnel budget.

“The ballooning of Department of Finance is a total waste of money,” said Cathers.

“The premier needs to learn to live within his means, and that means differentiating between what’s nice to have and what’s required.”

On Monday Silver, who is also minister of Finance, defended his Finance department hires.

He said they are a “strategic investment,” and that the government will ultimately see returns in the form of a financially stable Yukon government.

“We were very critical about how we’re going to move forward — what hires are going to be had,” he said.

“We did a good job of spending the money that we need to do now to make sure that the fiscal balance and the fiscal scrutiny is there for decisions for tomorrow.”

Silver reiterated that his government is not considering cutting public sector jobs as a way to reign in spending in future years, and Cathers said today that the Yukon Party is not calling for layoffs.

The Yukon government will spend an estimated $516.5 million on personnel this year – a little over a third of the territory’s $1.44-billion budget.

Neither the premier nor the minister of the Public Service Commission could be reached before today’s press deadline.