A Yukon Party MLA renewed the party’s call Wednesday for the government to provide a detailed plan on loosening the reins on pandemic health restrictions.

Brad Cathers queried the government during question period as to why it couldn’t come up a plan similar to what British Columbia has announced.

“(Tuesday), the Government of B.C. released a clear plan for reopening the province,” Cathers said.

“That plan includes clear timelines and benchmarks for when next steps will occur. It is based on information that can easily be found by the public: new cases, hospitalizations, and vaccination rates.

“If all goes according to current trends, British Columbians are expected to be able to travel around the province by mid-June, and by July 1, mask use is to become a personal choice.”

Attending professional sports in B.C. is slated for September, Cathers pointed out.

“This kind of forward-looking, transparent plan is a good step forward and is basically what we had promised in the last election to provide Yukoners with — a clear path forward.

“Will the Liberal government now agree to deliver a clear path forward for a safe reopening of the Yukon that includes clear timelines and benchmarks?”

Health and Social Services Minister Tracy McPhee did her best to answer Cathers.

“I am actually very pleased to be able to get up today in response to this question, because I was thinking about this (Tuesday) as the leader of the official Opposition was talking about them being the only party during the election to have committed to a clear path forward and that they would do such a thing,” McPhee said.

“Actually, the wording used by both the member opposite today and by the official Opposition leader (Tuesday) is in fact the name of the plan that the Yukon has right now — A Path Forward — for the purposes of informing Yukoners, for the purposes of indicating benchmarks, for the purposes of discussing and making public for Yukon citizens exactly what the path forward is going to be for reopening, for dealing with issues around COVID-19, for dealing with vaccine rollout, and for dealing with concepts of variants that are here in the territory or that might come to the territory.”

The Yukon is “by far the safest place in Canada,” McPhee added.

“Kids are in school, businesses are running, the self-isolation requirements have been reduced if fully vaccinated individuals are here, and a success story it is.”

Cathers continued to press his point.

“In B.C., we see now a willingness to communicate openly and provide a clear and transparent reopening plan for that province,” he said.

“The Liberals have taken some steps forward to reopening, but they seem to be making it up as they go, and there is a real lack of clarity.

“For example, with the return to in-person classes in Whitehorse high schools, one day the Liberals said that it can’t happen and, a few days later, they said the opposite without being able to explain what changed in just a few days,” Cathers told the house.

That prompted Premier Sandy Silver to interject himself into the conversation.

“We have been clear throughout the pandemic. We have worked with the chief medical officer of health and our partner governments to keep Yukoners safe,” the premier said.

“Recommendations come without any political interference the moment that they are ready to be given by the chief medical officer of health and then the public servants, with our leadership, work on the implementation.

“In A Path Forward — the member opposite should read the document — it speaks very directly about a two-week to three-week window in between those things as we work with our partners,” Silver said.

“What we have seen with the Yukon Party is, you know, this time last year, pen-to-paper criticizing the chief medical officer of health. We have also seen, when we were closing down the bubble to B.C., them urging us to open up to Alberta” Silver said.

“We also saw them on the campaign trail saying, ‘Come hell or high water, we are going to open up to the restrictions’ — again, without consulting the chief medical officer of health and actually criticizing him publicly in the newspapers.”

Cathers fired back.

“Outfitters, tourism operators, and other businesses are looking for a clear path forward, and we have seen a worrying trend of worsening governance under the Liberals since the election,” he said.

“They continuously leave things to the last minute, hastily make announcements without understanding how things will work, and end up missing the mark. Having a clear plan, clear benchmarks and timelines would help to give confidence to Yukon citizens and businesses about what’s next and what’s to come.”

In response, McPhee said, “We are leading the country in the fight against COVID-19. During the pandemic, Yukon Party MLAs called on us to ignore the science, as mentioned by the premier, and to lift restrictions and even to bubble with Alberta when they were in a very difficult place.”

Last week in the media, McPhee said, the Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon “told Yukoners that he does not support the lifting of self-isolation requirements for fully vaccinated people.

“Mr. Speaker, it’s very difficult to make sense of where the Yukon Party stands on any of this.”

Later, in a media scrum, Dixon scoffed at the Liberal attacks.

“On the very first day of the election (in March), we said we would work with the medical officer of health to create a plan to safely re-open the territory based on benchmarks.

“So what we said today is that B.C. just did exactly what we said we would do. So why can’t we do that?” Dixon asked.

“What we want is a plan to reopen the territory based on benchmarks and timelines, as B.C. has just done.

“Provinces have released similar plans. What we’ve seen so far is that the government is flying by the seat of its pants.”