The governing Liberals and the Yukon Party quarrelled Wednesday over the continuing question of fuel prices and whether the territorial government should offer a rebate.

Yukon Party MLA Stacey Hassard said John Streicker, the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, didn’t know what he was talking about during recent remarks he made on the issue to reporters.

“Earlier this week, when the minister of Energy was talking to media about the Yukon Party’s proposal to defer collection of the fuel tax for the year, the minister said — and I’ll quote: ‘one of the ones that has been suggested to us is to drop the gas tax, but remember: all of the gas tax is rebated to Yukoners. So that isn’t helping in a sense because all that money is going back anyways.’

“Can the minister explain those comments and tell this house how the fuel tax is rebated to Yukoners?” Hassard asked.

“Mr. Speaker, the simple fact is that what the minister told the media earlier this week was flat-out wrong. The fuel tax is not rebated to Yukoners, but given the inflation crisis that Yukoners are facing, we believe that it should be,” Hassard added.

“Will the government agree to cut the fuel tax on Yukoners while they face this unprecedented cost-of-living crisis?”

Streicker attempted to explain himself in the wake of those pointed questions.

“What I was speaking about is the carbon price. The carbon price, of course, is a federal policy that is brought in but which we support, and what we have done is design a program where all of those dollars are rebated to Yukoners,” he said.

“They go back to Yukon families; they go back to Yukon businesses; they go back to First Nation governments and municipal governments. They don’t come back to us.

“We’ve discussed carbon pricing very often in the legislative assembly and that’s what I was referring to.”

Hassard brushed that off, noting, “I’ll remind the minister: that’s not what he said, and that’s certainly not we had asked.”

That provoked a testy response from Streicker

“I don’t recall seeing the member opposite there when I was speaking to the media,” he said.

“I will check back to make sure that it was clear that I was talking about the carbon price, but I’m standing on the floor of the legislature today to say that this is about the carbon price and the carbon rebate.”

Hassard sniped back on that answer.

“You know, we hear often about the importance of providing accurate information, and it is clear that the minister is certainly not doing that today.

“Jurisdictions across North America have been announcing that they are taking action by cutting or suspending their fuel taxes, but here in the Yukon, government ministers have demonstrated that they don’t even know how the fuel tax works, and have incorrectly suggested that it is already rebated,” Hassard said.

Premier Sandy Silver interjected himself into the discussion at that point.

“The minister has been clear when it comes to the rebate of carbon pricing, and we have also been clear that we believe that affecting the cost of living on a positive basis on the electrical rates is a better approach forward,” the premier said.

“We have designed a whole budget that addresses inflation since August (2021). We have been making lives more affordable for Yukoners.”

Hassard, Silver added, “is part of the team that has been proven very unreliable when it comes to carbon pricing. They just put a press release out saying that they have never been in favour of a carbon pricing mechanism, but yet they campaigned on having one.

“Again, they could say that we are mincing our words about carbon pricing when it’s absolutely not true. We have been consistent about carbon pricing since the beginning.

“We have also been consistent with our rebates and our efforts to make lives more affordable for Yukoners since day one.”