Yukoners have named housing as the number one issue in the territory, according to the results of the latest DataPath Systems poll.

Twenty-eight per cent of the 330 people surveyed said housing should be the government's top priority.

The environment was the next highest rated issue, with 15 per cent of respondents highlighting it as the key challenge for the Yukon.

Bill Thomas, the chair of the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition, said today he's not surprised housing took the top spot.

"We all know that the demand for housing of all kinds has been outstripping the supply, so we're getting the results in terms of skyrocketing prices and people not being able to afford housing and in some cases having a job here but having to leave the territory because they can't find housing.”

"It's been a serious problem for quite awhile,” he said.

In February 2011, the coalition released a housing strategy for Whitehorse and earlier this summer published a progress report on the recommendations included in that strategy.

While there had been some progress over the year, the report showed there was still much more to be done.

Thomas said the coalition has had a series of meetings with the Yukon government about its housing strategy.

"They've been more than willing to listen to us and listen to the recommendations of the housing action plan which we did, but there still isn't enough movement on that,” said Thomas.

"I have to admit, they've made a series of announcements on housing and they will continue to do that. We were just told there's going to be more announcements this month on housing projects ... so all of that is a step in the right direction, the coalition would just like to see more concrete evidence of

action.

"The government keeps on referring to their platform and housing is a big part of their platform, but they won't move closer to a strategy, a general strategy for approaching the housing situation; they just don't want to do that.”

Liz Hanson, the leader of the official Opposition, said this morning, "The Yukon Party has made it clear that they can't be trusted to address the housing crisis; that was a huge issue in the months leading up to the last general election, and we've called upon the Government of Yukon to work with all sectors, work with the official Opposition to develop a housing strategy.

"It's their single biggest failure; they're not prepared to work with others.

"They take the position it's whatever their platform is and those are all sort of ad hoc approaches and that's not strategic, and it's not going to resolve the issue in the long term.”

In terms of political leanings in the territory, the poll shows that support has risen for all parties except the Liberals, who experienced a drop in support of 19 percentage points.

Going into the election last fall, 26 per cent of Yukoners seemed poised to vote Liberal.

If an election was held today, the DataPath poll shows only seven per cent would be likely to vote Liberal.

The Liberals refused to comment on the DataPath survey results.

Chief of staff Jason Cunning said the party does not comment on polls.

The Yukon Party gained nine percentage points in support in the latest poll.

If an election was held in the near future, the poll predicts, the party would likely garner 43 per cent of the vote.

The NDP wouldn't be far behind. The polls shows the party sitting at 42 per cent support after gaining seven percentage points.

The Green Party also gained support, with an increase of four percentage points to sit at six per cent.

Satisfaction in the Yukon Party's performance has remained stable, with 30 per cent of respondents giving the party high ratings, of four or five out of five.

Twenty-eight per cent gave high ratings for the NDP, an increase from 20 per cent last fall. Eight per cent gave the Liberals high ratings.

Hanson said the NDP's practice is to not really comment on "numbers in a horse race,” noting that the numbers often go up and down.

But she did say, "Before the election and the 10 months since, we've been working hard to be constructive opposition and to show that we are listening and to put forward ideas, showing that the opposition is not just opposing but we have practical ideas.”

Respondents were asked to rate the Yukon Party's performance on specific issues using a five-point scale, from "not at all satisfied” to "extremely satisfied.”

Forty-two per cent gave a high rating of four or five for "creating attractive investment climate,” while 32 per cent gave high ratings for "support for small business,” and 31 per cent gave high ratings on "health care.”

Confidence in the economy has risen since 2008, when it was rated the top issue by 15 per cent of respondents. This year, less than five per cent said it should take top priority.

Twenty-seven per cent of respondents said the economy is in "peak” or "healthy” condition and 52 per cent reported it as "stable.”

The lowest-rated issues were "housing” with 16 per cent of respondents rating high on satisfaction scale, "land use planning” with 17 per cent, "diversifying the Yukon economy, with 20 per cent, "protecting the Peel” with 22 per cent, "working co-operatively with First Nations” with 24 per cent, and "balancing economy growth with environmental protections” with 26 per cent.

Less than one quarter of the respondents said they were satisfied with the government's performance on these issues.

Cabinet communications officials for the Yukon Party could not be reached for comment before press time this afternoon.

Hanson said the high satisfaction rating regarding health care was surprising to her.

"The on-ground reality for most Yukoners is they don't have access to a front line care provider,” she said.

"We've been trying to get the territorial government, the Yukon Party, to talk about collaborative health care, patient-centred care, and they're talking about building institutional care, like acute care hospitals and that's the high-cost part of it.

"The discussion needs to move more toward how do we deliver effective care that's based on the needs of the patient and not on hospitals and the medical profession?”

Overall, 65 per cent of Yukoners responded that they are doing about the same as last year, while 18 per cent said they were slightly better off and 18 per cent said they were slightly worse off.

Respondents were also polled about federal politics, which showed that 33 per cent of Yukoners approve of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's job thus far, while 31 per cent approve of Ryan Leef, the territory's Conservative MP.

The poll highlighted a key change from previous years in the way MPs are elected in the Yukon.

In previous years, about 55 per cent of Yukoners were more likely to elect an MP based on what he or she could do for the territory.

The poll shows this has dropped to 35 per cent.

Sixty-five per cent would now be more likely to vote based on what he or she could do for the country.

The DataPath survey was conducted using 330 web-based surveys between July 28 and Aug. 6 this year.

Two hundred and thirty-eight surveys were conducted with Whitehorse residents while 92 were with non-Whitehorse residents.

The survey report says, "The data is weighted to accurately represent Yukoners based on the community they live in, their age and gender.”

The margin of error for the survey would be 5.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20, or a 95 per cent confidence rating, if the study had been conducted only by a true probability sample.