Talking about adding insult to injury.

Pauline Frost, the former Liberal MLA for Vuntut Gwitchin and a minister with multiple portfolios, has been ordered to pay court costs for her challenge of the April election result in the riding.

Frost has been ordered to pay more than $8,000 after a judge sided with her successor in an effort to have the election result overturned.

Frost challenged the tie of 78 votes each in Vuntut Gwitchin in Yukon Supreme Court.

She did so days after the drawing of lots determined the winner was her NDP opponent, Annie Blake, who now sits in the legislature.

Blake had asked for $42,840 in costs related to Frost’s legal petition.

That money was to be repaid to the Yukon NDP.

It was the second time a vote in the riding has led to a tie result. The first, which took place in the 1990s, was also settled by a drawing of lots after a legal challenge.

Frost had been the incumbent after her 2016 election victory.

She had alleged that Christopher Schafer, who was in jail in Whitehorse and who voted in Vuntut Gwitchin, wasn’t eligible because he didn’t meet the residency requirement.

Initially, a woman was involved in a separate but similar question. That part of the appeal was dropped.

Yukon Supreme Court Chief Justice Suzanne Duncan ruled election officials had acted in accordance with the Elections Act, applying the correct guidelines to the prisoner’s residency.

“This court held that Christopher Schafer was properly found to be a resident of Old Crow by the returning officer for the purpose of the act,” her decision says.

“The actions of the elections officials in determining his ability to vote and allowing him to vote did not amount to breaches of procedures in the act designed to establish his entitlement to vote.”

“Even if Frost v Blake, 2021 YKSC 62 Page 4 they did, the actions were taken in good faith and did not materially affect the result of the election,” the judge concluded.

“The chief electoral officer’s response to counsel for the Yukon Liberal Party was legally appropriate. The policy guidelines applicable to inmates’residency were found to be consistent with the act and appropriate,” Duncan wrote.

She wrote that she based the final amount of $7,500 plus the five-per-cent GST on “reasonableness.’’

She also added the $395 cost of a flight from Whitehorse to Old Crow.

The court heard that Frost did not have a regular income of her own and that the Liberal party did not fund the challenge, so any costs will be Frost’s responsibility, Duncan wrote in her ruling.

– With files from The Canadian Press