The Yukon government’s sudden decision to send local high school students back to full-time classes in April was the source of some intense debate Wednesday in the legislature.

During question period, the government and Premier Sandy Silver were grilled on the decision by Yukon Party MLAs.

Scott Kent, the education critic for the YP, was particularly pointed in his questions.

“As we have said, A Path Forward, which the Liberals released just five days ago, says that, in order to get students back to full-time class in person in Whitehorse, we need to meet a criteria of — and I’ll quote again: ‘High overall vaccination rate for the entire Yukon population.’

“We and so many other Yukoners are just wondering what exactly this means. What number is considered a high overall vaccination rate? The premier couldn’t answer that question (Tuesday).”

The government announced this week that Grades 10-12 students in Whitehorse can go back to full-time classes next month. Since the fall of 2020, they have been doing half their learning online.

“The government must be confident that they will reach a high overall vaccination rate by that time frame,” said Kent. “What is that number that they are trying to reach by next month?”

Kent pressed Silver to explain what had changed in the five days between the release of the modified version of A Path Forward and Wednesday, when the government announced the planned return to class.

He also noted the Pfizer vaccine, which is not being used in any of the territories, has been approved to be used for ages 16 and older.

The Moderna vaccine, which has been used exclusively so far, can only be given to people aged 18 and more.

Kent noted that if the Pfizer vaccine was available, some of the students returning to school would be eligible to be immunized.

“I hate to correct the member opposite, but it wasn’t us, as a government, who said that we would say no to Pfizer,” Silver responded.

“We said that we would absolutely take on any vaccination. We actually even said that we do have the capacity and the refrigeration to do that in Whitehorse.

“We do know that the medical community nationally — I guess that doesn’t matter to the members opposite — said that the most important thing is that it’s hard to transport this vaccine; it’s very fragile,” the premier added.

“However, we never said that we wouldn’t accept Pfizer.”

Official Opposition Leader Stacey Hassard also questioned Silver on the issue.

“So, the Path Forward documents that the Liberals released just five days ago state that, in order to return high school students to full-time, in-person classes, the children must be eligible for the vaccine.

“(Wednesday) morning, the government announced that students will return to full-time, in-person classes next month,” Hassard said.

“While this is very welcome news, as far as we are aware, children are not currently eligible for the vaccine. So, five days ago, the government said that this was a requirement.

“Today, it appears not to be the case, so what changed in just five days for the government to change their criteria on this?” Hassard asked.

As for the rationale for sending students back to school in April when A Path Forward calls for that to happen in the fall, Silver said, “Again, we always follow the recommendations from the chief medical officer of health.

“We believed, at that time, that 75 per cent of the adult population would accept having a vaccination. We still, as the doctor (Brendan Hanley) has said again today — that’s still our goal.

“Now, is that the rate that’s needed to get herd immunity in these communities? The scientific community cannot answer that question today,” Silver said.

“Now, the members opposite can pin that on me as much as they want, but again, Mr. Speaker, the scientific community is cautiously optimistic that the trends that they’re seeing right now, not only in Yukon but in Canada — the rate of vaccination is good enough for us to continue on a path where we will see fewer restrictions.”

Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee told the Star in an interview early this afternoon the decision to change course came very rapidly.

On Tuesday, Hanley indicated he was open to discussing an earlier return to full-time studies than had been discussed. Talks on the issue continued through the evening and night before being finalized Wednesday morning.

Initial conversations were launched with schools and the Yukon Teachers’ Association, she said. All indicated they were excited about the opportunity.

McPhee then said the decision was made to announce the news on Wednesday morning during the weekly COVID-19 briefing instead or working out all of the logistics ahead of time.