Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon says he’s doubtful the Liberal government has its own agenda for the territory, but he’s eager to find out.

“This is the first sitting of a new premier and the first sitting since they signed the new Confidence and Supply Agreement with the NDP; we’re looking to see what sort of vision the new premier is able to offer that can justify or explain why he made such a bizarre deal,” Dixon said in an interview this week.

“It just seems like the Liberals are in the deal for the sake of staying in power.”

Since the end of last year, even before Silver was replaced, Dixon has repeatedly said Pillai should seek his own mandate for the premiership by calling a general election. 

Instead, Dixon said, the Liberals have opted to be “propped up by the NDP,” and has adopted the third party’s platform in return.

“So those two parties have largely become one,” he said. “The Yukon Party is really the only alternative to the status quo.”

Dixon was critical of the government’s slow movement on providing lots for development and creating housing during a shortage that’s driven up the costs of rents and homes across the territory. 

He said the government has also continued to fail to invest in health care or provide incentives to recruit and retain medical professionals when thousands of Yukoners lack a family doctor and a shortage of nurses has delayed surgeries at Whitehorse General Hospital.

Although the new CASA agreement addresses some of those health care issues, like investments in recruitment, which Dixon said he supports, he also said he’s disappointed those initiatives are driven by the third party, not the governing party.

The Yukon Party will take the government to task on these issues when the Liberal government presents its budget tomorrow afternoon.

His party’s main criticism of the Liberals under Ranj Pillai’s leadership, Dixon said, was what he called a “relentless attack on the private sector.”

This includes an end to no-cause evictions, the continuation of rent controls and the minimum wage increases tied to inflation, paid sick days and the consideration of making businesses pay for some of the recyclables they produce, Dixon said.

“This is at a time when (businesses have) just been struggling so much to come out of the COVID pandemic,” he said.

“This is a time when they should be getting support from the government not having additional costs, additional regulations heaped onto them. 

“And so that’s the feedback we’ve been getting from businesses. And that’s what we’ll be bringing forward in the legislature this sitting.”

NDP Leader Kate White said late last week her party is focused on getting to work on the initiatives laid out in the new CASA.

She said she’s proud of what the last CASA was able to accomplish, mentioning items like the new dental plan, and she believes her party has negotiated for initiatives that will improve the lives of Yukoners. 

“This isn’t me playing politics,” she told the Star. “This is really about trying to do what I think is best, what I think is right.” 

That includes ending no-cause evictions, something she’s been fighting for for more than a decade, and continuing rent control, she said.

“What it does is it gives people a bit more security of tenure,” White said.

That doesn’t mean her party will be in lock-step with the Yukon Liberals, she added.

“There’s a whole bunch of things within that agreement that are way more important than whether or not I can get along with Ranj on a daily basis.”

The NDP will support the budget the Liberals will present Thursday though, a commitment included in the new CASA.

“We will say the reasons we disagree with it, but the commitment that I made says that we will vote in favour of the budget,” she said. “But it doesn’t mean that I have to agree.”

White said she’s seen more collaboration among all three parties since the Liberals formed a minority government in 2021, something she hopes to continue into this sitting.

“I think that there’s a real opportunity to work with the other two parties to the betterment of the territory,” she said.

“I am excited, because we’ve seen more progressive changes happen in the territory in the last almost two years than ever before.”

White said her party will be focused on CASA initiatives, like drafting new mining legislation in co-operation with First Nations governments, but will also look beyond the agreement. Addressing the territory’s labour shortage is key, she said.

“At one point in time, the Yukon could sit back a bit and say, ‘well, we pay higher than other jurisdictions,’ right, if we talk about education, or we talk about health care, and the truth of the matter is, is we don’t anymore,” she said.

“What once was a competitive edge is slipping. And I think that has to be re-evaluated.”