Yukon opposition leaders say the Liberal government’s $26.2-million supplementary budget falls well short of expectations.

Opposition Leader Currie Dixon came out of the legislature Thursday afternoon with both barrels firing.

“We have raised the concern that the Liberal government is not taking the inflation crisis seriously, and what we saw today was that exact fear played out ….” Dixon said.

“We had telegraphed all week – both myself and the NDP – had telegraphed to the government that we would be raising inflation as the number one issue … the responses from the government were weak at best, to say the least,” Dixon said.

Last week, the governent announced several measures to help Yukoners cope with the cost of living.

Those include another $150 per customer in power rate relief over three months, on top of an initial $150 earlier this year; one-time $150 payments to social assistance recipients and Yukon Seniors Income Supplement recipients; a six-month extension of $500 per month to caregivers of children in out-of-home care; and a rebate of up to $50 per cord of wood to heat homes, up to 10 cords.

“None of those are in the budget … so it’s clear to us that they’ve come up with these on the fly,” Dixon said.

“This is not something they’ve been preparing for over the course of the summer. They simply have made these announcements over the last two weeks because they knew that they were going to get grilled on it in the legislature and they’ve come up with a few of these measures to address it … so it’s clear that they’re making this up as they go.”

Dixon explained how his party would handle the current inflationary pressures.

“We think it would be more broadly supportive of Yukoners to cut the fuel tax to assist in the price of gasoline, the price of fuel and the price of food, as the majority of our food comes up by truck,” he said.

“We also today suggested removing the carbon tax from home heating fuel, as you see in other jurisdictions.

“The NDP has provided a number of things that they think would be useful, and now I understand the premier is saying he’ll consider some of these suggestions from the NDP, but where was this two months ago? Where was this in the spring?”

He added his position on the carbon tax has been clear all along.

“I don’t think the carbon tax is the best way to reduce emissions in the Yukon. I never have. We’ve said that for years now.

“I think that there are other measures that would be better suited at reducing emissions in the Yukon and I think that’s what we should be focusing on,” he said.

“But our question today was very specific: will the government ask the federal government to remove the carbon tax from home heating fuel? That’s something that’s well within the government’s gamut of opportunities to consider.

“And we’ve seen it play out in other jurisdictions. The Northwest Territories negotiated the exemption of the carbon tax to home heating fuel. We think that should be done here.”

Ideally, he would like to see the carbon tax removed altogether, “but we know that’s not likely, so what we’d like to see is it removed at least for home heating fuel during this period of unprecedented inflation.

“We know that home heating fuel is a significant driver of household budgets.”

He was asked why he thinks the Liberal government is reluctant to drop the territorial fuel.

“My view is that any suggestion that comes from the Yukon Party they will inherently oppose,” he said.

“And so, because we have suggested it, I think that they don’t want to do it because it’s our idea. I would be happy if they stole that idea from me; I really wish they would.”

Independent economists have found that Alberta’s elimination of the fuel tax led to a direct reduction in the cost of fuel, Dixon said, “and everybody who travels down to Alberta sees the difference at the pumps.”

NDP Leader Kate White also didn’t hold back with her opinion on the government’s supplementary budget.

“I think there’s real opportunities when we talk about budgets and we talk about things that they can do, and when you listen to a budget speech and it’s like listening to paint dry, you wonder how something that can be so important to the health of the economy and the health of a territory can be so dull,” White said.

“And so I think that there will be a lot of opportunity in the next number of weeks to really pull that stuff apart but you know, question period today was brutal in terms of the complete lack of recognition of the experience of Yukoners right now. If that sets the tone for the fall sitting, it’s gonna be a long one.”

When politicians discuss these issues, she added, “it’s not just how it’s affecting us as individuals, but how it’s affecting all of us. I think we’re all in this and some of us, the experiences are far, far harder than others.”

White was asked if there were any surprises for her in the supplementary budget.

“Honestly, no. It takes a long time for budgets to be prepared and so it’s interesting that the first inflation announcement was included, but it doesn’t include the ones that were just made in a – I would say it’s kind of a haphazard way – last week and so, we see part of that, we don’t see all of that.

“I’m not surprised. Everyone right now, we should be talking about the financial effects of climate change … $60 million for wildfire, $3 million for flooding and those are all numbers that are only gonna get bigger.

“We’ve seen landslides like we’ve never seen before, right? And those may be affecting the City of Whitehorse, but it definitely affects the territorial government along the (North) Klondike Highway and so we’re going to continue to see those things augment but that money will have to get spent. It’s something we can’t scrimp on.”

Would she have liked to have seen more?

“Absolutely. Because I think there was a real opportunity. We could have really done some good for people with that surplus, as far as trying to help with people’s reality right now, the lived reality of where they are with the cost of everything going up.”