The two opposition parties are reacting to Thursday’s mammoth budget with a mixture of skepticism and boredom.

Currie Dixon, the leader of the Yukon Party, wasn’t moved nor inspired by the record-setting budget.

“Obviously, the budget is remarkable for its size,” he told reporters during a media scrum following the address.

“It’s a record level of spending, a record level of net debt. That’s a concerning trajectory for us in the big picture.

“But when you look at the budget, it’s fairly unremarkable. There’s a long list of projects, none of which I think are new. They’ve all been committed to already.

“Really what we see is an inflated version of last year’s budget with a few trinkets thrown in for the NDP. It’s short on new vision or innovation charting out a new direction.”

Dixon couldn’t resist throwing a barb or two at Premier Sandy Silver.

“As for the address itself, I thought it was long, flat and uninspiring. It was over an hour long, and didn’t elicit a single round of applause from his MLAs or cabinet ministers. And it seemed like he was reading it for the first time.”

Dixon said the budget speech missed several important issues.

“There’s nothing in there to address affordability issues,” he said.

“When you look at the gas pumps today, the price of gas is at a record high. There’s no plan to address that. There’s no plan to address housing affordability.

“The budget highlights how ineffective government has been at addressing that over the last several years.”

Dixon said it appears to him that the government is “resting on its laurels” when it came to the economy.

“When we talk to small business owners and small to medium enterprises, that’s not what we hear. They say they are struggling. We haven’t seen any plan to help the private sector.

“What businesses are looking for in an ability to get back to work. They’re not looking for handouts necessarily. We think the government is out of touch with the private sector.”

Despite that, Dixon said “there are aspects of the budget we do support. That being said, we’ve seen it (Thursday) morning for the first time, and will have more to say about it.”

NDP Leader Kate White also wasn’t truly impressed with the budget.

“This has been a number of years that I’ve been in the house, since 2011. And I always think a budget is an opportunity to lay out a vision.

“I always want to be inspired. I struggled today through that. Partially it’s because there wasn’t anything new and exciting.

“There was an opportunity there. We’re coming out of COVID; here’s an opportunity to re-invent what we thought was normal. We could have a brand-new vision of what we’re going to do, but that’s not what it is. It was lack lustre, and that’s a challenge.”

White said the government isn’t talking about how to fix things, such as the opioids abuse crisis, which is what she hoped to see.

“We don’t need more people to tell us what the solutions are,” she said.

Despite her disappointment, White said, she and her colleagues will vote in favour of the budget, as part of the April 2021 Confidence and Supply Agreement the party has signed with the minority Liberal government.

“For me, I wanted more.”

The NDP later issued a statement on the budget.

“We’re glad to see the commitments of the Confidence and Supply Agreement reflected – but the overall budget is underwhelming,” White said in the statement.

“There are no bold investments for climate change adaptation and mitigation and little new money dedicated to the drug poisoning crisis.

“Housing investments won’t come close to solving the Yukon’s ongoing housing shortage. The Liberals have delivered an unexceptional budget in exceptional times.”

Annie Blake, the NDP MLA for Vuntut Gwitchin, said, “The government has declared multiple emergencies – the climate, the opioid crisis – yet it’s not reflected in the budget. What we have seen are big words, little action, and definitely no ambition.”

Emily Tredger, the third NDP MLA, said “everyone deserves a stable, affordable place to live. This budget keeps on with the business as usual for housing. What we need is creative, innovative investments and policies to make housing affordable for everyone, including renters.”

The NDP identified what it sees as major gaps in the document, including, in its words:

“• Health care – With thousands of Yukoners still without a family doctor, the Liberals failed to include funding for a new walk-in clinic.

With the emergency room as the only other option for basic healthcare, hospitals have felt a strain because of it.

As our aging population continues to grow, this budget misses an opportunity to implement aging in place initiatives. The government is stalling on their own promises as they make cuts to home care and continuing care.

• Harm reduction – The Yukon is now the Canadian jurisdiction with the highest rate of deaths by drug poisoning per capita. And yet – almost no new funds have been directed to harm reduction initiatives.

Training for health care practitioners to prescribe a safe supply of opioids should be a priority, as well as allowing registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses to prescribe treatment medications for opioid use disorder. 

The Yukon will receive less money this year from the federal government for substance use addictions programs, because the minister failed to apply for available funding streams, such as federal funding for a managed alcohol program. 

• Climate change – Despite the Liberals’ declaration of a climate change emergency more than two years ago, the budget for Our Clean Future is still less than they are spending on highway maintenance. That is not a budget that is serious about a climate crisis.

• Education – The Department of Education needs to recover from years of neglect under successive governments and this “business as usual” budget just doesn’t cut it.

Clinical counsellors are needed in schools. Physical changes to schools and classrooms need to be made.

More training needs to be available for educators, and the government needs to recruit permanent teachers instead of filling full-time positions with teachers on call.

• Housing – The Liberal budget’s housing commitments won’t come close to addressing this crisis or clearing the ever-growing waitlist at Yukon Housing.

The Yukon is facing the worst housing crisis the territory has ever seen. Many families have given up on ever owning a house, and some are a paycheque away from homelessness.

While the rent cap protected hundreds of people from losing their homes to rent hikes, the Liberals have actively refused to provide more protections to Yukon tenants.

• Paid sick leave – Public engagement around paid sick leave showed an overwhelming support for paid sick leave for every Yukon worker.

The recommendations from the Make Work Safe panel called for a co-funded model – it’s disappointing to see the Liberals chose to leave this out of their budget.”

The budget does contain $1.8 million to create a dental care plan for Yukoners without insurance. Such a plan is one of the NDP’s conditions for supporting the government in confidence votes.