Lot shortage blame laid at YTG’s feet: McRobb

Yukon Liberal MLA Gary McRobb continued on Monday to blame the Yukon Party government for the shortage of residential lots in the city.

Yukon Liberal MLA Gary McRobb continued on Monday to blame the Yukon Party government for the shortage of residential lots in the city.

It was the Yukon Party which promised in 2005 to maintain a two-year supply of lots, the Kluane MLA told the legislature during question period.

He said the government has not lived up to an agreement with the City of Whitehorse which sets out a protocol for land development inside city limits.

Instead, McRobb suggested, it appears Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Archie Lang and company prefer to skirt the protocol agreement with back-room deals for development proposals that keep blindsiding the city.

McRobb said most recently the application by Whitehorse businessman Barry Bellchambers to build a new mobile home park south of the Northland Mobile Home Park came forward with little notice to city hall.

City council subsequently rejected the development, and some members of council expressed concern with regard to how the proposal surfaced, he pointed out.

The land is still owned by the government, but was made available to Bellchambers for purchase if the city approved the proposal.

McRobb accused Lang and company of other similar back-room deals that caught city hall off-guard, like the residential development formerly proposed for Holly Street on Yukon government-owned land made available for purchase if the city approved the deal.

The city rejected the proposal.

And there have been others, he pointed out.

For his use of the words back-room, Ted Staffen, Speaker of the House, scolded McRobb for suggesting improper practices by the government.

The Kluane MLA, however, has maintained his suggestion that Whitehorse is in a housing pickle because of the inability of the Yukon Party to work with the city and properly manage the supply of residential lots.

Lang, on the other hand, countered that his government is living up to the protocol agreement.

The government, the minister pointed out, has numerous residential developments proposed and ongoing, from the Whitehorse Copper subdivision to the Grizzly Valley development north of the city, the Arkell expansion and initiatives in other communities.

The government has more than doubled this year’s budget for residential development to $25 million.