Premier Sandy Silver has applauded Monday’s federal announcement that the first 249,000 doses of a COVID-19 will be available in Canada this month... even though the territories won’t be receiving any of them.

“I don’t want to speculate as to what that announcement means,” Silver told reporters Monday afternoon.

“I don’t look at it as being cut out,” he said.

“The opposition would have you believe that this rolling-out of the vaccine is somehow negative to the Yukon. I really don’t know how those two things connect. I really don’t.”

He called Monday’s announcement “good news.

“Does that do anything, as the Yukon Party would have you believe, to change the order of the Yukon in the queue? Absolutely not.”

Silver continued to hammer away on that point. Just because the Yukon isn’t one of the distribution centres named in the federal announcement didn’t mean it might not receive some of the doses, he added.

“What we heard (Monday) was what I look at as a pilot project to test their ability to get that out. It’s something they can test. It’s a great strategic deployment of a vaccine that comes with some issues.

“We are ready for whatever vaccine they decide on, whether it’s the distribution of one of these 20-some freezers that have ultra-low temperatures,” he said.

“That would be a bit of a challenge, but nothing that would be burdensome to any smaller jurisdiction.”

The Pfizer vaccine wasn’t the Yukon government’s first preference, Silver said, due to the fragility of the Pfizer vaccine and its requirements for ultra-cold storage of at least -70 C.

He said there were some concerns about how easily it could be transferred to remote locations without potentially spoiling the doses.

“We did say we have a preference for Moderna,” Silver said.

“There was no indication to the federal government or the prime minister that we’re not ready for any vaccine. Once the vaccine gets to a centre, it’s a matter of putting a needle into an arm.

“We are cautiously optimistic that we will get more than just a per capita amount,” the premier added.

“We are very confident that we can work with the federal government for whatever vaccine can come (here). We’re pretty excited with this today. I think Yukoners are looking for some really good news, and this is it.”

Currie Dixon, the leader of the Yukon Party, saw things differently.

“Why would you say we’re ready to go when we’re obviously not ready to go?” he asked rhetorically.

“We know we aren’t ready to accept this vaccine, and the federal government won’t release it to a province or territory unless they are ready,” Dixon said.

“So why did the premier tell us we were ready to accept these vaccines when we weren’t?

“We’ve been confused as to that the Liberal government of the Yukon has been saying, and we’re looking for answers. Why we have to get this information from press conferences is a question.”

Dixon said “there are clear inconsistencies between what the premier is saying and what the prime minister is saying nationally.”

He’s also concerned about the per capita basis of obtaining the vaccine. He said there are more people in the targeted sectors of health care workers and seniors in the Yukon than can be covered by that approach.

NDP Leader Kate White had a similar take on the issue.

“We know that Yukoners want to see the vaccinations roll out,” she said Monday afternoon.

“We know they want to move on with life. One of the clear things we’ve seen in the Yukon is the lack of clear communications coming from the government as to what things will look like.

“If we had a clear understanding and communications coming from the government, I think that would solve a lot of the political posturing that we see in the legislative assembly.”

White said she was surprised by the news the territories won’t be receiving any of the first vaccines.

“If we had known that, it wouldn’t have come out first in the press conference from the federal government and it wouldn’t have been so much of a surprise.”