Yukon's Opposition slams government's confrontational approach

After eight weeks of debate and a record budget, the spring sitting of the Yukon legislature has wrapped up. The 19 MLAs will return to their ridings, and continue their constituency work.

Debate on the budget consumed much of the time of the governing Yukon Party and the opposition, which consists of six NDP and one Liberal member. 

Government members have made a practice of referring to the budget during question period: whenever the opposition queries a government initiative, they will conclude their remarks by observing that the opposition has not voted for whatever the initiative is, accusing the opposition of being "against" spending on health care or education,

Legislative procedure means that MLAs vote on the budget bill as a whole, at second and third readings.

Liberal leader Sandy Silver says characterizing the opposition in that light is deliberately misleading the public.

"As an opposition member, it's our job to be critics of the departments. And in that job, we go to the communities, we find out what is on the minds of Yukoners, and we present those questions in debate.

"When they are sitting there criticizing and ridiculing the messenger, what they don't realize is those are questions from Yukoners. So the debate is, are we voting against health care or we voting against the leadership? Let's leave that open for the public to decide."

'Dog whistles' to Yukon Party core

In politics, a 'dog whistle' is a code word or phrase that's designed to be understood by a certain section of the populace — often the party's base. 

Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski has adopted a 'dog whistle' that he employs religiously every time issues crop up that touch upon First Nations' sovereignty.

Here's Pasloski's dog whistle: "There is always the ability for a democratically-elected, public government, to be able to have final say on what happens on public land."

The phrase speaks to the Yukon Party core, assuring them that the party won't let First Nations governments override the Yukon government. 

There's an election next year and the Yukon Party is sending this message every chance it can get.

Diplomacy not Yukon government's strong suit

In a nod to the often tense relations with First Nations, the government has been pursuing 'reconciliation' talks with unsigned First Nations, such as White River and the Kaska.

The Kaska may prove the tougher nut to crack. They've said they will pass their own 'natural resource law' later this summer. And the Kaska hold the key to any fracking activity in the Liard Basin.

First Nations constitute a powerful and sizeable public. It's notable that the Yukon Forum, a venue designed specifically for government to government communication between First Nations and Yukon under former premier Dennis Fentie, has not met since 2012.

And it's not only First Nations that pose a thorny diplomatic challenge. A turf war has developed between Pasloski and Whitehorse mayor Dan Curtis. It's a war of words and a war of wills, quite unlike anything we've seen before between the Yukon's capital and the government.

Bear in mind that some 28,000 of the Yukon's 37,000 people live in Whitehorse.

'Attitudes from the '70s and '80s'

NDP leader Liz Hanson says the government's inability to form trusting relationships harms the whole territory.

"By taking a confrontational approach, it makes it very, very difficult to find the middle ground, to come back and show that there is some respect," she says.

"The attitude of this government on all of the First Nations issues has been to effectively try to dismantle that new relationship that we created through land claims agreements. It has a negative spinoff for the economy, and it has a negative impact for us all in this territory.

"There has been a real resistance within the Yukon Party historically to the whole notion of land claims agreements, that goes back a long time. It wasn't under the Yukon Party government that these were negotiated, it was under the NDP.

"It's unfortunate that the Yukon Party of 2015 carries the legacy of its attitudes from the '70s and '80s."

Opposition trying to create discord: premier

While the opposition see a lot of cracks in the sitting, Premier Darrell Pasloski says he's happy with the way things turned out.

"I think it was very much a success," he says.

"We passed all the legislation that we put forward. We're reducing taxes for all taxpayers in the Yukon. A record capital budget where we're investing in infrastructure. We're putting people to work today .... but we're also building infrastructure to use for many years."

Pasloski says relations with the City of Whitehorse are improving, pointing to an agreement on land development between the government the city, and he says characterizing relations with First Nations as "tense" is just not true.

"The opposition has really taken an approach of really trying to create discord, purely for political gain, and that's disappointing, because I don't believe that's what Yukoners are looking for."

Pasloski says he has no influence over federal legislation such as Bill S-6, but he does support it. He adds he has invited the chiefs to develop an 'implementation accord' to deal with the bill, if it passes.

BBQ season busy for candidate courting

While the legislature breaks over the summer months and into the fall, parties will be gearing up for the 2016 territorial election.

Courting of candidates has been going on behind the scenes for some time now. Expect that activity to ratchet up considerably, with speculation in political circles focusing on who is running where and for whom.