Affordability, housing and the environment are high on Kate White’s list of issues to bring to the legislature after it reconvenes Thursday.

“They’re all important, but we’ll definitely be talking about affordability,” the NDP leader said in an interview Tuesday afternoon.

“We recently announced what our immediate actions to deal with the affordability crisis would be. The Liberals announced they have a $40-million surplus, or they expect to … and we really proposed measures that the government could do right now to ease the cost of living … so we’ll be talking about some of those aspects.

“We’re going to be talking about housing, because of course, along with the affordability crisis is the housing crisis, which existed in 2011 when I was first elected and here I am in 2022 and it still exists, so there’s a lot more to be done there.

“And something that I think is really important that it doesn’t get dropped off the map is environmental issues … the Clean Energy Council just recently came out with their recommendations in their paper and I think a lot of those – they’re predominantly action items for government, so we’ll be following up on that.”

Talking about the same issues a decade later is “incredibly frustrating, because it hasn’t been fixed,” she said.

Of the various governments during that decade, White said, “They may wear different clothes, but the actions are similar.”

She’d like to see an increase in social assistance rates, and was asked if that should be tied to job creation programs.

“One thing is we can’t tell people that we expect them to live in poverty and at the same time within that poverty that there is a requirement to be in that poverty, so I think making opportunities for folks is … fantastic but it cannot be tied to their very basic ability to live,” she said.

“So I don’t think that social assistance and job creation or training opportunities should be tied together.

“I think when people are able to survive, then they will look to those learning opportunities for the future but unfortunately, when we have so much of the population that’s in straight-up crisis mode, we can’t say that the only way out of this crisis is if we follow our steps.”

With rents having risen substantially, some social assistance recipients are having to use their food budget to help pay their rent, she noted.

“But that means then that they’re not eating, and we’ve heard from the food bank that there’s been a steady increase in folks accessing emergency food top-ups and so all of that is tied together,” she added.

White has a strong opinion on whether there should be no-cause evictions in the Yukon.

“I’m totally in disagreement … the landlord-tenant act needs to be reviewed but the Liberal government has the ability to put an order-in-council that stops evictions right now without cause to make sure they can do the good work to make sure that people aren’t caught in this horrible grey area that they are right now.”

The NDP leader still favours a rent increase cap, even in light of what’s been happening in the rental market.

“The reason why that got brought forward in 2021 is in the winter of 2020 I was approached by a number of seniors who lived in a building where the rents went up by 20, 30 – and the worst one was 50 per cent, and if we think that a landlord increasing rent by 50 per cent is acceptable, then that is not a place that I want to live,” she said.

“So if I had that privilege and responsibility of forming government after 2021, I would have put a pause on rent increases. I would have had a public consultation so I could have talked to tenants and landlords and everyone in-between about the best path forward.”

When the act was debated in 2012, she raised that issue.

“Even before I brought it up, it was brought up when they did the initial consultation on new legislation.

“It’s tough on seniors, it’s tough on young families, it’s tough on individuals, it’s tough on professional people,” White said.

“No one who gets an eviction notice that they have not caused themselves will tell you that they come out unscathed. This losing the security of home is awful,” she added.

Meanwhile, she said, the Liberals and NDP haven’t been working on an extension of the CASA (Confidence and Supply Agreement) lately.

“Nothing’s happening currently. With the premier making the announcement that he wasn’t seeking re-election, that definitely puts a pause on anything on a go-forward basis.

“It’s too early to tell what happens next; really, I have the expectation that the Liberals will live up to the agreement that was signed in 2021 and now one of the big pieces we’re waiting for of course is a public dental plan.”

It has to happen before the 2023-24 fiscal year budget drops early next year, she said.

As for the CASA talks with Premier Sandy Silver, she said, “Those are confidential, so I’m not gonna talk about or allude to anything, but the decisions that I make are based on Yukoners and that Yukoners are at the heart of those.”

She was also reluctant to state the circumstances under which she’d consider canceling the agreement.

“I’ve said previously, unequivocally, I stand by the commitments that I made in 2021 … but it’s been pointed out to me that if something so awful was to happen, could you – it’s another one that I can’t really answer.”

White has no regrets about signing the agreement.

“Not at all. That Confidence and Supply agreement saw a $2 increase in the minimum wage.

“It saw people get more security and tenure with the rent cap. It saw the beginning negotiations with First Nations governments, which hasn’t happened in the previous 28 years.

“We’re going to be the first jurisdiction in Canada with a public dental plan. And the list of accomplishments from that goes on and on … I am proud of what was negotiated … more changes happened in a short period of time because of that document than we’ve seen in a territory ever before.”