Yukon Party leader Currie Dixon discusses the Fall 2023 Sitting of the Yukon Legislative Assembly

Wednesday, 29 November 2023 12:29

By Stuart Bonell

Yukon Party leader Currie Dixon speaks with reporters on the last day of the Fall 2023 sitting. (Photo, S. Bonell)

Dixon shared his concerns from the most recent YLA sitting, including the carbon tax, healthcare system issues, and how the Government of Yukon can improve.

The Fall 2023 sitting of the Yukon Legislative Assembly wrapped up on November 23. In an interview with CHON-FM, Yukon Party leader Currie Dixon shared his thoughts on how the session went.

“…We entered the sitting focused on a few key subjects,” said Dixon. “One of them was affordability. That’s the one that we felt was probably the biggest issue facing Yukoners today; is the rising cost of living and the challenges that sop many Yukoners are facing [for] making ends meet.”

“We were happy with the sitting. We were happy with the way it went, and we were happy with the issues that were raised.”

According to Dixon, the largest obstacle to affordability is the carbon tax, which the Government of Canada paused for home heating fuel early in the sitting. But that wasn’t the end of the discussion in the territory.

“We proposed, of course, the removal of the carbon tax from home heating fuel,” said Dixon. “That was something that we saw acted on by the federal government. But unfortunately, the Yukon government remained one of the lone holdouts in the country wanting to see the carbon tax returned to home heating fuel.”

“We proposed cutting the fuel tax, doubling the Pioneer utility grant; a range of measures that we felt would have helped keep more money in Yukoners’ pockets. And unfortunately, we just didn’t see any change or even acknowledgement of the problem from the Yukon Government, and that was really concerning for us.”

“We wanted to see the Yukon Government take this affordability crisis a little more seriously, and take some real action to help Yukoners out. Unfortunately, we just didn’t see that.”

In the final weeks of the fall sitting, the Yukon Party raised several healthcare system concerns during question period. As just one example, Dixon pointed to the health centre service reductions in the communities.

“…We’ve seen closures in places like Pelly and Ross River. We’ve seen service cutbacks in a range of other communities. And then, we’ve seen just a general challenge in delivering healthcare in rural Yukon.”

And it isn’t just service reductions in the communities. According to Dixon, the Yukon Party is aware of several concerns from healthcare workers across the territory on a variety of issues; and he finds the Government of Yukon’s responses to them troubling.

“What we’re hearing, and we hear directly from medical professionals; we hear directly from patients; and we hear directly from hospital administrators, [is] that there are real challenges.”

“When we raise an issue in the legislature, whether it’s the psychiatrist clinic or whether it’s these cuts to imaging, or anything else, and the response from the Liberal government is ‘You’re wrong,’ and ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ that’s a slap in the face to those Yukoners who have brought us that information and […] shared their experiences with us.”

“I think that, not only do the Liberals need to change their policies, they also need to change the level of respect they have for Yukoners when they bring forward these issues.”

Despite these disappointments the fall sitting wasn’t a complete bust for the Yukon Party. Dixon said he was pleased and very proud that his party was able to have a motion for the Yukon RCMP to receive additional territorial funding pass in the Legislative Assembly on October 11.