Guests at a breakfast with the premier hosted this morning by the Yukon Chamber of Commerce wanted to know what the premier is doing about the dearth of housing in the territory.

Following Sandy Silver’s remarks on the 2017-18 territorial budget, Yukon Teachers’ Association president Jill Mason asked him what concrete steps he was taking to build and improve housing for teachers in rural Yukon.

During the 2016 election campaign, Mason said, she sent a letter to all the political parties.

It asked for a plan to deal with the ongoing issue of substandard, and in some cases non-existent, housing for teachers in rural Yukon.

The Liberals responded saying they would do an assessment of the territory’s housing needs and develop a plan to address them, she said.

In March, Mason sent a follow-up letter to Silver, by then premier, and to Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee and the minister responsible for the Yukon Housing Corp., Pauline Frost. That letter asked what progress had been made on the housing plan for teachers.

“I didn’t receive a reply,” Mason said this morning.

She told Silver that after two meetings with with Education and the housing corporation, it was clear that “they have received no direction, they don’t know that this is a plan that you have put in place, if you have put it in place.”

The premier said he didn’t see Mason’s most recent letter – and apologized for not responding.

“That’s no way to run a government,” he said.

Silver, formerly a teacher in Dawson, acknowledged that housing is a serious issue.

The current housing corporation plan paints the whole Yukon with one brush, he said, but every community is different.

“The problems that are occurring in Faro are not the problems that are occurring in Dawson City and Haines Junction,” said Silver. “The plan is to take a look at the needs per community.”

In Silver’s view, teachers new to a community should first be offered temporary housing. Then, once they “grow roots,” they should move into permanent housing in the community.

“If you’re a teacher coming into the community, you should have housing, but not forever,” the premier said.

Once the teacher or health care worker is established, the private sector should step in with housing options, he said.

The 2017-18 budget tabled last Thursday sets aside $3.2 million for staff housing, with $2.4 million of that going toward a six-plex in Ross River, and $800,000 for repairs to existing staff housing.

Ranjit Sarin, representing the Vimy Heritage Housing Society, asked about the future of his organization’s plan to build quasi-independent seniors’ housing in Whitehorse.

“It’s been proven that if you have good nutrition, no isolation, activities, people will live a better life,” said Sarin.

In March 2016, the then-Yukon Party government gave the society $50,000 to plan for the new seniors’ home.

There isn’t money earmarked for the Vimy project in this year’s budget, conceded Silver, adding the government’s purse isn’t as full as he thought it was as the Liberals headed into office.

“We had to make some tough decisions as far as what was going in this budget and what wasn’t,” he said.

Vimy’s absence from this year’s budget doesn’t mean the project won’t go ahead in years to come, said Silver.

Mayor Dan Curtis said there are opportunities to build more housing in the Whistle Bend subdivision – if the necessary resources come through.

“I don’t think that housing is the responsibility of any one government or of any one industry, or any one business, or any one individual,” he said.

“It’s truly something that the entire community has to work towards.”

In previous years, the premier Darrell Pasloki would deliver a budget teaser at a Yukon Chamber of Commerce event ahead of tabling the year’s financial plan in the House.

Silver decided to abandon that tradition this year, “out of respect to the opposition, out of respect to the democratic process.”

“The place where that budget should be dropped originally, is in the legislative assembly,” Silver told this morning’s Gold Rush Inn audience.

In his breakfast address, Silver said this budget represents the “true cost” of running government, and noted the financial advisory panel he’s struck to deal with deficits projected for future years.

The 2017-18 budget estimates a small, $6.5-million surplus, but forecasts deficits ranging from $42.3 million to $58 million over the following three years.

This fiscal year’s proposed budget cuts the general corporate tax rate from 15 per cent to 12 per cent, and the small business tax rate from 3 per cent to 2 per cent.

These tax cuts would add up to $1.6-million in savings for Yukon businesses, said Silver.

The Liberals vowed to eliminate the small business tax altogether during the territorial campaign.

Getting rid of the tax may have been a good move politically, Silver said this morning, but that since taking office last December, he has realized it would have been unwise in terms of policy.

Chamber president Peter Turner said some of his members were disappointed to learn the Liberals aren’t nixing the small business tax, as promised.

However, he said, they were more understanding after considering the substantial deficits expected, starting in 2018-19.

“Business people understand being fiscally prudent,” he said.