First responders, legal professionals and dental hygienists are the beneficiaries of new government bills to be introduced in the Yukon legislative assembly this fall, after MLAs reconvene Tuesday.

The government’s agenda for the fall sitting revolves around continued work on many of the same issues with which its members have been occupied since the spring, or longer.

Premier Sandy Silver hosted a media briefing Thursday afternoon on the government’s legislative priorities for the upcoming session and the pieces of planned legislation the Liberals are “particularly proud of.”

Silver highlighted impending changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act (WCA) and the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). The former will provide for presumptive post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) legislation, said Silver.

Enacting this change to the act, a 2016 Liberal campaign promise, will see a first responder’s PTSD diagnosis automatically attributed to his or her work unless proven otherwise.

“This could result in a faster decision on the claim,” Kurt Dieckmann, the president of the Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board, said in a June statement.

The OHSA amendment will focus on workplace regulations to prevent the development of PTSD in the workplace, which Silver called “as important, if not more important” than the WCA change.

“That’s the message that we’ve heard from the initial responders, how important that piece is, to help break down a stoic culture and to get in to have a healthier work environment,” he said.

A new Legal Profession Act can also be expected, according to Silver. The government finished public consultations in early September on the bill it plans to table this fall.

The act will be modernized to reflect development in the Yukon’s legal profession and industry recommendations.

In 2011, the Law Society of Yukon published a paper calling for the act’s update.

“Those changes are long overdue,” said Silver. Enacting them will bring the Yukon up to Canada-wide standards.

The final legislative priority the premier chose to highlight also applies to a particular professional field.

Changes to the Dental Profession Act that expand the scope of practice for dental hygienists can be expected, according to Silver.

“This is us listening to the communities,” he said of the three items announced for the fall agenda. “For me, it’s a good balance between legislation that is overdue and also mandate stuff that we’ve been campaigning on.”

The two opposition parties seem equally preoccupied with long-standing issues as the new session commences.

“We’re going to be following up on a number of similar themes from the spring sitting,” said Yukon Party house leader Scott Kent.

He told the Star Thursday the opposition will remain focused on how the government plans to implement the federal carbon tax, its willingness to stand up for small businesses in the Yukon, and its handling of contracting and tendering issues.

Kent also said he hopes the Yukon Liberal ministers have spent the summer getting better acquainted with their portfolios than they were in the spring.

“We would get non-answers or different answers to our questions in the legislature, and then the minister or whoever it may be would go upstairs and get briefed up on the issaue and give different responses to the media,” he said.

“We’re hopeful that the ministers are more prepared to answer our questions on the floor of the house this go-around.”

NDP Leader Liz Hanson also said Thursday her party is hoping to deal with a matured government as the Liberals approach a year in power.

“In the spring sitting, we endeavoured to be quite accommodating to the fact that it was a new group of people in the legislative assembly with not much background in terms of the jobs they had gotten themselves in to,” Hanson said.

“We think that it’s reasonable for Yukoners to now expect that the words and the general kinds of statements that ministers and the premier made over the course of the last year should be turning in to action.”

Hanson said she and her NDP colleague, Kate White, are looking for evidence-based decision-making by the Liberals and a willingness to listen to the “lived reality” of Yukoners.

If they are committed to doing so, she said, they will extend any new PTSD legislation beyond just first responders.

“The legislative assembly heard clearly last spring during the debate from others who are affected by PTSD,” said Hanson.

“They may work at a corrections facility, they may work as a nurse, all sorts of different professions and they need to be considered as well.”

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