Yukon cabinet communications staff have responded to a commentary by the Yukon Party published in the Opinion section of today’s Star.

The party points to a report released Wednesday by Ontario’s Auditor General.

As the Star reported Wednesday, the report found that the province’s Conservative government’s decision to open up protected greenbelt spaces to housing construction favoured “certain developers” with ties to the housing ministry.

The Yukon Party also raises an agreement the territorial and Ontario governments signed in May in that province to spur potential housing development in the Yukon. It then sets out a series of questions for Premier Ranj Pillai, who met with business representatives in Ontario.

One question is: “Were any of the businesses that the premier met with identified in the recent Auditor General of Ontario report?”

“Advocating for the needs of Yukoners is a priority for the Yukon Liberal government,” communications staff said in a statement.

“We’d like to thank Currie Dixon and the Yukon Party caucus for letting us know in writing that they do not support national collaboration on housing or economic development, and they no longer support working with Premier Doug Ford or the Government of Ontario.”

The Yukon Party “seems confused about the Ontario Auditor General’s recent report,” the statement said.

“It is titled ‘Special Report on Changes to the Greenbelt’. The word ‘Yukon’ does not appear in the report.

“Currie Dixon’s opposition to working with Doug Ford must be a relatively new development,” the Liberal statement added.

It then pointed to a December 2022 news release from the Yukon NDP.

In it, the New Democrats asked which of Ford’s “bad ideas” Dixon planned to import to the Yukon after he met with Ford and other Conservative ministers earlier that month in Toronto.

“The Yukon NDP wants to know what failed policies of the Ontario government Mr. Dixon is trying to learn from his conservative friends,” the NDP said at the time.

“Premier Ford has introduced a long and growing list of bad policy and legislation since his government was first elected.”

Ford won his second election in June 2022.