A new $150 rebate for Yukoners to be applied to electricity bills had tempers flaring Tuesday in the legislature.

In a news release which accompanied the discussion, the government “announced a new $150 Inflation Relief Rebate to reduce the impacts that rising prices are having on Yukoners.

“The rebate will be applied automatically to all residential and commercial ATCO Electric Yukon and Yukon Energy electricity bills in the coming months, regardless of energy usage.”

In about eight weeks, the rebate will start appearing as a $50 credit each month for three months on all non-government residential and commercial electricity customers’ bills.

“This rebate is in addition to the existing Interim Electrical Rebate for residential customers,” the release said.

“The Interim Electrical Rebate reduces the amount residential customers pay on their first 1,000 kilowatt hours each month, saving Yukoners up to $270 a year.

“Although electricity rates in the Yukon remain the lowest in the North, Yukoners and local businesses are feeling the impacts of rising costs of living being felt around the world.”

Yukon Party MLAs made it clear they aren’t happy with the concept – despite repeated calls on the government to make energy bills more affordable.

“The premier made a speech about his budget to the Yukon Chamber of Commerce (last week),” MLA Brad Cathers said.

“Realizing that his (March 3) budget was already out of date and completely forgot about tackling inflation and the rising cost of living, the premier announced a new measure not contemplated in the budget — an electrical rebate to residential and commercial customers of $150 for the year.

“Can the premier tell us how much this new program will cost, when it will roll out, and why the measure wasn’t budgeted for at all?”

Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker offered to make a ministerial statement in the house to explain the rebate.

“What we announced was $50 a month for three months for a total of $150. This is to help Yukoners because we know that there are prices rising,” Streicker said.

“We know that the war in Ukraine has pushed the price of fuel up and also the price of food. This is us responding to that situation. The total dollar value, I believe, is $3 million.”

Cathers rebuffed those comments.

“We have proposed waiving the fuel tax, reversing the Liberals’ multimillion-dollar tax hike on insurance, and pushing the federal government to cancel the carbon tax increase during this inflation crisis, but the Liberals have dismissed all of these suggestions,” Cathers said.

“The minister of Economic Development (Ranj Pillai) even dismissed waiving the fuel tax as nothing more than ‘a boutique policy’ that he said was plagiarized from Alberta.

“It’s not lost on Yukoners that the $150 rebate is a policy directly copied from the same Alberta government whose policy the Liberals criticized as being ‘boutique.’

“Will the premier admit that his last-minute effort to copy Alberta is further proof that his budget is already stale-dated and out of touch with the challenges facing Yukoners with the rising cost of living?”

That jab quickly brought Premier Sandy Silver to his feet.

“So, again, the member opposite is incorrect. When we take a look at what they suggested as far as getting rid of the six-cent (per litre) fuel tax here in Yukon, we made it known that it’s the lowest fuel tax in Canada.

“Now, with this rebate that we are giving out to people — $50 per month — think about how many times you would have to fill up your gas tank to equal that type of support with the Yukon Party-led response.”

He called the power bill rebate “another method that we’re doing to make sure that lives are affordable for Yukoners. On this side of the House, we will use evidence-based decision-making.”

Cathers continued to call the budget out of touch with reality – “so out of touch that they’re making up policy on the fly and introducing new programs not contemplated by the budget. The premier raved that his budget is not stale and they don’t need to do anything to help Yukoners with the cost of living.

“Now the premier’s throwing a Hail Mary with a new program that wasn’t even included in the budget.”

Afterward, Streicker spoke with the Star about the issue, which he called an interim measure.

“We all are trying to work to support Yukoners,” he said. “There are people living close to the margins and needing more support.”

Streicker said the rebate was a “way to try to reach Yukoners more directly.

“We had been in conversation with the chamber of commerce about electricity rates. So we decided to do this program which would get straight to Yukoners. It does not matter if you have a large electric bill or not. That’s why we went for the rebate.

“We went back and forth with the utilities as to whether we could get it in. It was a lot of hustle.”

He said the government was “looking at a period of time as much as the dollar amount. We wanted something that was meaningful and significant for Yukoners, and we wanted to do it for a period of time. We will watch to see what’s going on.”

Streicker said the government will continue to work “on a whole bunch of fronts.

“I guess I believe Yukoners will be in support of it. Some might seek more, but we have a whole bunch of programs to help Yukoners.”

However, there were no supportive comments to be seen on the government’s Facebook page.

Gary Atkins wrote, “Throwing peanuts at the peasants! My hydro bill has doubled in the last 12 months. (hm... I seem to remember the YP was going to freeze rates.)”

Justin Trusz posted: “Yet another example of the absolute disconnect from reality by this government.”

Twyla Risby added, “This is laughable. Why not just remove the revenue short fall rider that makes up almost 40% of our bills?

“And what about the $15 customer charge that we are being charged every month just to be a customer of Yukon Electric, as if we have any other option?”

The situation was much the same on the government’s Twitter account.

One person wrote: “$50/month for three months – that solved everything ... not even close to the cost increases families are seeing and doesn’t proportionally help families. Another Band-aid solution to a much deeper problem.”