Don Hutton, the MLA who bolted from the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent, continued to relentlessly prod his former colleagues over alcohol and drug issues.

For the second time this week in question period, Hutton assailed the government over what he sees as inaction on those issues.

On Monday, he sparred with Premier Sandy Silver. On Thursday, he once again took aim at the premier, but his questions were handled instead by two cabinet ministers, as Silver would not engage him.

“Mr. Speaker, we are dealing with two pandemics: COVID-19, and alcohol and substance abuse,” Hutton said.

“This government continues to ignore one of them. I am a firefighter, and any firefighter can tell you that, if you have multiple fires out there, you have to fight more than one at a time. If you don’t, you will find yourself with two raging fires — not one.

“In 2016, our chief medical officer, Dr. Hanley, said — and I quote: ‘We see a thousand visits to the emergency departments of Yukon directly related to alcohol use…’ He called for more resources and policy changes,” Hutton added.

“Mr. Speaker, the premier has followed the advice of Dr. Hanley to deal with COVID-19. Why has the premier ignored him when it comes to alcohol- and drug-related damage to our population?”

That question was answered by Pauline Frost, the minister of Health and Social Services.

“The situation in Yukon that we find ourselves in didn’t start overnight; it has been here a long time. We heard this quite clearly from our communities. That it is not the sole responsibility of this government is what we have also heard,” Frost said.

“We know that the shouldering of the responsibilities of wellness in Yukon and of ensuring our communities are well and taken care of falls on holistic solutions. The holistic solutions with respect to mental wellness and the whole care of individuals come from our communities. We are working with our communities.”

“To suggest that we’re not doing anything is absolutely not true.”

The government is “doing a lot, and the communities are doing a lot,” Frost added.

“We have heard really clearly from one of the communities in the member’s riding where they are doing a lot themselves, with the support of our partners, by hosting land-based camps for men, land-based camps for women, and working with children. “

Hutton didn’t pause his attack on the issue.

“The World Health Organization said in April that rules to protect health and reduce harm caused by alcohol, like restricting access, should be upheld and reinforced during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this past June, the government cut alcohol prices, going against public health advice,” the independent said.

“There are a million ways to support our small businesses to get through this pandemic, but, Mr. Speaker, this was not the right way.

“Making it easier for struggling people to get alcohol was not the right thing to do. More than just ignoring this issue, government has poured gas on this fire.

“Will the premier admit that reducing the price of alcohol in the middle of a pandemic goes against public health advice and was not the right way to support the restaurant and bar industry?”

Community Services Minister John Streicker entered the fray at that point.

“First of all, what I would like to say is that I have worked very closely with the chief medical officer of health,” he said.

“I have worked with him on COVID. I have worked with him on liquor. Actually, he was involved and on the advisory committee as we reviewed the (Liquor) act and rewrote the act and passed it here in this legislature.

“Currently, he is assisting in working on the regulations, which are there to reduce the harms of alcohol.”

That was the whole point of that act, Streicker added.

“We built in, throughout it, social responsibility. In fact, I did ask the member opposite — and I thank him for his contributions to that work.

“At the same time, I also talked to the chief medical officer of health about what we should do around reducing the prices. Now, we didn’t reduce the prices of alcohol, Mr. Speaker. What we did was that we supported those businesses to keep them going. I talked to them directly.

“I talked to those businesses, and I said: ‘If you reduce prices on alcohol, I will drop this right away.’ They understood that this was to support them as businesses through a pandemic — plain and simple.”

Hutton continued to force the issue.

“Right now, many First Nation governments are forced to send people to Victoria at great cost to get the help they need. This is unacceptable, Mr. Speaker.

“I add my voice to councillor Skookum’s and ask the premier to act now to deal with alcohol and substance abuse. When will the premier commit to the financial and human resources required to take care of our people?”

Streicker answered, saying “This pandemic has been tough on all Yukoners. It has been tough on our communities, for sure.

“One of the things that was hard for us was that we used to travel all the time to our communities, and I did travel to the community that the member opposite is talking about. It is his community. I invited him to come to that meeting when I spoke with the council there, but he didn’t make it.

“It doesn’t mean that there aren’t challenges that we continue to face, but we did go — we are in conversation with Carmacks, with Pelly, with Mayo, with Keno.

“In those conversations, we are working directly to make sure that those supports are coming to those communities to support them during this hard time and beyond.”

Later in the day, Hutton had a chance to respond to some of those comments from Streicker in the assembly.

“It’s really disappointing to hear that, because I missed one meeting in Mayo, somehow I’ve failed as the MLA for Mayo-Tatchun,” Hutton said.

“The failure lies on behalf of my colleagues who have been absolutely tone-deaf since 2016 to the MLA for Mayo-Tatchun’s issues.

“I have not asked my government for a lot, but I have asked them to pay attention to my communities. They have been ignored for far too long.

“I really wish that we could have had a half a day for me to have a conversation with my colleagues about the problems that are faced. In 4 1/2 years, my issues were never important enough to sit down and have a meeting with me.”