If the Yukon Party wants to know the issues Whitehorse Centre residents believe are important, instead of deploying a survey in the riding, the premier should call a byelection, say opposition candidates for the vacant downtown riding.

That's how Liz Hanson, the NDP leader and the party's candidate for Whitehorse Centre, and Liberal nominee Kirk Cameron, gearing up to represent his party in a downtown byelection, reacted to a Yukon Party questionnaire that started arriving in mailboxes this week.

While Premier Dennis Fentie has until Jan. 21, 2011 to call the byelection, both hoped he would fill the seat before the fall sitting, which began Sept. 21.

But Fentie continues to insist that voters in Whitehorse Centre should not be concerned in the absence of a sitting MLA, and will be well-represented by the Yukon Party government.

In the meantime, those living in the downtown with issues and concerns, said Fentie, could raise those directly with him, or another member of the Yukon Party caucus.

These remarks, said Cameron, make the survey, paid for by the Yukon Party, all the more curious.

"We've heard Mr. Fentie, on a number of occasions, say that he and the government are perfectly equipped to look after the interests of Whitehorse Centre,” Cameron told the Star today. "So why didn't he just drop the writ and let the residents bring issues forward?”

Hanson takes a similar view.

"If the Yukon Party was serious about what Whitehorse Centre residents thought, they'd actually have a candidate out here to talk to people,” Hanson told the Star. "And if they couldn't find a candidate, they could've sent party people to canvass.”

The survey's first of eight questions – the only one that deals specifically with the downtown – asks residents what they consider to be the most pressing issue for Whitehorse Centre.

Hanson, who has been canvassing the downtown since its former MLA Todd Hardy died at the end of July, said changing the government is what she hears most often when going door to door.

"And if I can get them off the negative stuff, it's housing,” Hanson said. She cited a young professional couple she met recently who could not afford to buy a house and were making do with a dank basement suite.

"And then there was another woman paying more for a room in Whitehorse than she was paying for an entire apartment in Vancouver,” Hanson added.

Whitehorse's vacancy rate is currently less than one per cent. and this has driven up the cost of rent. Combined with the current labour force spike – some of which have relocated to the territory for work – only adds to the difficulty in finding accommodations.

Cameron, who has also been canvassing downtown since the leadup to his Sept. 23 nomination victory, likeswise said housing is among residents' top concerns.

"It's poverty, homelessness and housing and what all of those things are going to do to the development of downtown Whitehorse,” said Cameron

"And the ripple effects (of not addressing these) ... there's a whole host of things that interact, they're ever present and it's the kind of thing I'm hearing over and over again.”

Carel Alexander, president of the Yukon Party, told the Star the survey was intended to "provide voters in Whitehorse Centre with information on key accomplishments” of the current government and, "to get feedback on various issues of concern.”

Other survey questions ask about the most important issues facing the Yukon, the country and whether changes should be made ot the Landlord and Tenant Act – a question the legislature's Select Committee on the Landlord and Tenant Act is already tasked with answering.

Respondents are also queried on which radio station and newspaper they read.

Alexander said a decision on when a byelection or general election occurs rests with the premier.

On Thursday, Fentie distanced himself from the Yukon Party survey, but suggested it could guide his deliberations on when and how to go to the polls.

"(The survey) came from the party, the Yukon Party,” Fentie said of the double-sided two-page pamphlet.

But did he know it was coming?

"Well, of course, I'm the leader of the party,” said Fentie, who will attend his party's fall convention Nov. 6.

"But I don't think (such surveys are) unusual. It's certainly a fact here that we have an empty seat, and a decision is going to have to be made here pretty shortly with how we're going to deal with this.”

The mandate on Fentie's majority Yukon Party government is set to expire in the fall 2011, and holding a byelection in between a general election is what the premier calls a "compressed timeline”.

But the premier has left the door open to foregoing a byelection and calling a territory-wide vote, as early as before Christmas.

"We may very well have (an election before Christmas) and that decision may be soon – and we're considering both possibilities (pre-Christmas general or byelection),” Fentie told the Star.

"We would be remiss if we didn't look at the compressed timelines – what it means to hold a byelection and then jump right into a general election.

We've got to go through that process.”