Spring sitting ends at Yukon Legislative Assembly with passage of $2.3B budget

The Yukon Legislative Assembly's spring sitting ended Thursday with MLAs passing the 2025-26 budget, which the Liberal government says includes record spending on health care, more money for police, and for communities. 

The government says the $2.3-billion budget includes historic investments that will respond to the needs of a rapidly-growing territory.

"We are now experiencing here what many jurisdictions have been experiencing for a long time," Premier Ranj Pillai said Thursday, referring to concerns about public safety amid a drug crisis and rise in gun violence.

"You need to ensure that you have the right social supports and social nets in place."

The budget includes nearly $30 million in transfers to municipalities through the Comprehensive Municipal Grant. There's also money for Yukon RCMP, and for the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) unit.

Other major investments are being made in education, housing, and health care. 

"I think we all know this is a challenge across the country," Pillai said about the health care system. 

"Making sure that we are hiring more individuals to work in the health-care sector, making sure that the Yukon Hospital Corporation has the money they need, finishing off the infrastructure that's required for supports for mental health, I think is incredibly important."

The budget passed with support from the NDP while the Yukon Party voted against it.

"Ultimately, we're doing what Yukoners tasked us to do which is, they asked us to work together," NDP Leader Kate White said Thursday. 

"They asked us to prioritize their needs and their wants. And that's what we've done. And even though it has been tough, because it is not an easy process, you know, we've stood by that commitment."

White also touted her party's role in many initiatives, through the confidence and supply agreement with the Liberals. 

She pointed to the new walk-in clinic in Whitehorse, as well as Blood Ties Four Directions' safe consumption site, and the managed alcohol program as NDP-driven initiatives.

The NDP also introduced Bill 310, which gives the Yukon Medical Association (YMA) bargaining rights and establishes processes for dispute resolution and binding arbitration.

"We're going to get a lot of the government telling us now that they would have done it without us, but they had already been a majority government like, prior to the 2020 election and they hadn't done it," White said. 

"So they can say now that was always a priority — but they hadn't done it. And so ... we'll take full credit."

The Yukon Party also managed to get some motions passed during the spring sitting, including one calling on the government to recruit American doctors and another to cut red tape for them.

"We tried our best to raise concerns that we've heard from both health professionals and patients who are experiencing huge problems with our healthcare system right now," said Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon.

The Yukon Party also passed a motion that eventually forced the court-appointed receiver for Victoria Gold Corp., the mining company responsible for the environmental disaster at the Eagle Gold Mine in June 2024, to testify before MLAs. 

Legislation passed

The legislature also passed several pieces of legislation during this sitting, including:

• The Residential Tenancies Act, to replace the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. The new act legislates the elimination of no-cause evictions and creates a rent cap system for the Yukon that's tied to inflation. 
• Changes to the Income Tax Act, to bring in a tax credit for fertility treatment. 
• Modernizing the Child Care Act, in which Yukon's early childhood educators and the process for their certification are recognized in law for the first time. It also outlines how childhood educators must be paid. 
• The Inclusive Yukon Family Act, to modernize laws to recognize diverse family structures and provide more inclusive parentage recognition. 

It's not clear whether there will be another sitting of this assembly before the next election, which must happen on or before November 3.

Pillai says Elections Yukon is still working to set the new riding boundaries.

Meanwhile, the premier and Dixon both hinted at a fiercely competitive election campaign to come. 

Dixon said his party has been "speaking up for Yukoners" in the legislature, especially around issues such as the shortage of health-care workers, problems with the Whitehorse emergency shelter, and barriers to housing construction.

He believes Yukoners are ready for something different after nine years of Liberal government in the territory. 

"They're going to want to see a change from what they've been getting right now," Dixon at the end of the sitting on Thursday.