Yukon Liberals bemoan 'gatekeeping' as opposition parties laugh

Life is a little more complicated when you're a minority government.

The opposition Yukon Party and NDP voted Tuesday to strip the ruling Liberals of the unfettered ability to issue ministerial statements in the Legislative Assembly.

From now on, at least one opposition party house leader will have to agree to the topic of any planned ministerial statement for it to be allowed.

Until now, such statements were a part of the daily routine in the legislature. Ministers can speak for four minutes on a topic of their choosing, and each opposition party gets four minutes to respond. Ministers then get a final four minutes for a rebuttal.

But even though they had guaranteed time to respond, the opposition parties said they're tired of listening to what they described as rehashed news releases from the government.

Premier Ranj Pillai used his ministerial statement Tuesday to accuse the opposition parties of "gatekeeping" and trampling on free speech.

"Today, we will see the unholy alliance of the Yukon Party and the NDP working together to limit Yukoners' ability to access information about their government," said Pillai, as opposition MLAs howled with laughter.

Liberal staffers offered reporters a detailed list of topics covered by ministerial statements during the current assembly: climate change, housing, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls are some examples.

But the statements are typically delivered by ministers reading a list of pre-written talking points. When opposition parties ask questions during their rebuttal, the minister's response is usually, though not exclusively, to read more talking points.

Brad Cathers, the Yukon Party's critic for democratic institutions, said it's ludicrous for the government to claim it's being censored by the opposition. 

"If the government issues a press release or holds a press conference, media cover it. The government also has social media that it controls and its own website to post any news about any topic whenever they want," he said.

"They also have a large advertising budget at their disposal, which they can increase at any time if they wish, and of course, if you add up the number of government communications staff, between the cabinet communications office and departments, there are more communications staff in government than there are journalists in the territory trying to cover government."

NDP Leader Kate White said the change will save time that MLAs can use to debate issues and question the government. The statements take a total of 16 minutes of every four-and-a-half-hour sitting day. White said MLAs can put that time to better use.

"I think I've responded to over 200 ministerial statements," she said. "So I'm a little bit salty on this matter."