Whitehorse Daily Star

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Geraldine Van Bibber

Minister challenged on border crossing remarks

The Yukon Party is grumbling that the territorial government has misled the public about the status of the Little Gold-Poker Creek border crossing connecting Canada and the U.S. via the Top of the World Highway.

By Whitehorse Star on May 10, 2022

Revised - The Yukon Party says the territorial government has misled the public about the status of the Little Gold-Poker Creek border crossing connecting Canada and the U.S. via the Top of the World Highway.

In a news release issued Tuesday, the party stated, “During the spring sitting, the Yukon’s tourism minister (Ranj Pillai) assured operators after two years of closure, the Little Gold-Poker Creek border crossing would be ‘open as normal’ for the summer. Businesses – especially those in the Klondike – planned accordingly.

“However, last week, Canadian and U.S. border officials said the crossing would not open until June 1, and would close on Sept. 1,” the Yukon Party noted.

“Normally, seasonal operations run from May 15 to Sept. 15. The hours of operation were also reduced; with a new closing time of 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.”

The release went on to state, “This announcement is already affecting tourism operators in Dawson. They say they have experienced a number of cancellations.”

“On behalf of tourism operators, the Yukon Party official Opposition asked about this important border crossing a number of times during the spring sitting,” recalled tourism critic Geraldine Van Bibber.

“Each time the minister answered, the border would be back operating at pre-pandemic levels.

“To hear news of reduced operations at the border when the minister indicated it was all systems go is very disappointing.

“The minister needs to explain why and how he provided the inaccurate and unreliable information that is now affecting Yukon tourism operators,” Van Bibber said.

“He also needs to confirm if this will be the new schedule in future years.”

The party added, “This follows the cancellation of the White Pass and Yukon Route trips to the Yukon this summer due to restrictions and uncertainty around wait times – an announcement that came just days after the minister told the legislature that border issues had been resolved.”

Pillai told the Star today from Toronto he “was a little bit taken aback” by the Yukon Party’s comments.

“I thought I was being careful and clear in what I said in the legislature about the border crossing,” he said.

“We knew things were evolving, and we knew the U.S. side might not be moving as quickly. I thought I was being clear about the possibility that things could change.

“We provided the best information we had at the time.”

Pillair said his department and the government had to adapt to circumstances as “we go through.”

“I thought it was a pretty petty attack (by the Yukon Party) for what amounts to two weeks’ difference.”

Comments (11)

Up 3 Down 3

toast on May 13, 2022 at 3:44 pm

@Mr Facts

You're free to travel but no business is obligated to help you do that.
Don't like it? Too bad.

Up 8 Down 5

Douglas James on May 13, 2022 at 7:00 am

Socialist politicians and state employees acting in their own self-interests instead of caring about independent business owners and their customers.... I'm shocked I tell you... Shocked!!!

Up 10 Down 4

Democratic Dissent on May 11, 2022 at 11:07 pm

Interesting choice of words in the headline. on May 11, 2022 at 9:45 am:

I take your intention to make a distinction between intentional and unintentional deception but, one can intentionally mislead others with a lie. Of course there is the ability to deceive with lies of omission, and of course, the ever popular “spin” of a truth represented by the notion about lies, that everybody lies, they just sell it differently.

Elected politicians are simply the current elite, of the elite, propagandists skilled in the art of self promotion in an adversarial system of argumentation and image making wherein it is permissible, and politically expedient to lie under the cover of a parliamentary privilege. Of course government gets to adjudicate its own affairs internally so, take the convictions as you will, but it would be very unwise to accept the “official” version offered by any government record… All governments generally, Liberal governments specifically, and this Liberal government, ABSOLUTELY!

The lie’s purpose is to deceive, to mislead, which requires motivation. The Liberals have been in your face with their motivations so they aren’t liars. Straight up, their current behaviour is dissociatively sociopathic. Just to be clear though, I am not saying that Liberals are sociopaths. It is what they must become by virtue of the demands of the political system they are ensconced within. They are master manipulators. They are self promoting.

They are willing to interfere with the rights of others, the bodily integrity of others, the individuality of others, the security of others, with the full force of the “peoples will” to implement their agenda on the people. For example, “you will own nothing and be happy” or, “I admire their basic dictatorship”… No longer a nation of peace, order, and good government… We are now in the era of conflict, disorder, and bad governments.

Up 8 Down 4

George Moss on May 11, 2022 at 6:30 pm

Melba why don’t you enlighten all of us as what is happening and justify why we feel that way and why you feel that way….

Up 21 Down 22

Mr Facts on May 11, 2022 at 1:57 pm

End the mandates. My constitutional rights to travel freely is not based on my medical status, period.

Up 11 Down 20

melba on May 11, 2022 at 1:48 pm

That iBrian made some nasty statements toward First Nations people.
"we have FN taking over a majority of schools. The same organizations that can’t keep daycares open or food programs operating... so now we have people selected by a joke of a voting system where you had to write your name on the ballot, who had no written or mathematical system and still do not. ...Knowledge keepers who didn’t know what a wheel was."

FYI, Brian, non-native people run 'most of the schools', not FN people so why don't you start with yourself when demanding accuracy.

Native bands and organizations have failures, as do non-native governments and organizations. It would take a very long time to list all the massive screw ups by mainly 'white' people. Start with our mining regime that routinely does not collect clean up money. We give away the resources and pay for the clean up and live with the environmental disasters. Then take a look at our medical system, thousands without a doctor, 2 year wait for hip surgery. Look at our lumber industry, run by 'white' people. Raw logs exported and forests destroyed for 5 or 10 bucks a tree to the government. So shut your trap with your freak outs that a daycare or food program isn't open every day it's supposed to be.

I read a Toronto Star article from 1975, where people were openly racist. You'd have fit right in and I'm going to say something about it. You're a goof.

Up 30 Down 13

Interesting choice of words in the headline. on May 11, 2022 at 9:45 am

Your story reads: "The Yukon Party is grumbling..."

Grumbling means expressing a complaint in a bad-tempered way. As per Oxford dictionary.
There is nothing bad-tempered about it. We should all be upset that an official lied to us. Especially the tour operators and business people in Dawson.

I also don't like that you wrote "misled the public". No he lied. There is a difference. Misleading is an unintentional untruth. Lying is intentional untruth. You mean to tell us that he didn't know? Really?

Do better, please.

Up 30 Down 13

iBrian on May 11, 2022 at 6:00 am

With all the crap going on in our Territory and around the nation. Not including the world. I see the detachment these Politicians have from the real world.
You have the CoW promoting homelessness and drug addiction. 2 major issues effecting here.
You have a mud slide, they happen all over the world. But the CoW doesn’t seem to have a Loader or Hoe operator. Guess that explains why the roads were so bad when I came in from Carcross I have to drive my truck so I didn’t get stuck on the side road to my dentist.
Then we have FN taking over a majority of schools. The same organizations that can’t keep daycares open or food programs operating when schools are open. So now we have people selected by a joke of a voting system where you had to write your name on the ballot, who had no written or mathematical system and still do not. Over glorified historical inaccuracy being introduced as gospel. Knowledge keepers who didn’t know what a wheel was.
So, this bit of BS about a federal operated post. EFOFF.

Up 24 Down 19

Baba O’Riley on May 10, 2022 at 8:00 pm

In response to Al on May 10, 2022 at 3:12 pm:

It does not matter if they lie, cheat, steal, or endanger young children through their reckless and negligent handling of policy, law, and their absolute legal obligation to report sexual offending against children.

They have taken away peoples ability to earn a living, endangered our future generations with their bungling of the Covid response through school closures and mask mandates. Sociopathology, mental health concerns, and neurodevelopmental disorders are also on the rise in our younger generations while brain morphology, connectivity, and their sequelae have contributed to declines in their executive functioning, impulse control, with consequent increases in negative emotionalism.

This is well studied and there is a wide variety of academic and scientific literature on the declines in intelligence, especially fluid intelligence.

And many of you act as if there is nothing wrong while damage is being done to our children, our future… You should be panicking about this, not climate change hysteria.

FFS! If children were smarter and less emotionally dysregulated there would not be a climate change hysteria to begin with and more people would have stood against Covid hysteria too.

Up 16 Down 21

Snowball on May 10, 2022 at 3:36 pm

Dumb it's not open 24 hrs.

Up 52 Down 23

Al on May 10, 2022 at 3:12 pm

Gotcha Lord Pillai.

Next time try, (I know for you it is difficult) and get your facts before making false statement. In simpler terms: before you put your mouth in gear be sure of what is true or just being made up to make people think you know what you are talking about.

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