As the Yukon legislature’s fall sitting began today, Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon says it is time for an election to let the people have a say about whether Ranj Pillai should be premier.

“He took over the mantle midway through a mandate (last January),” Dixon told the Star last Wednesday.

“I think it’s incumbent on him to follow the Canadian political convention and seek his own mandate as premier from the people of Yukon.”

This was the overarching message as Dixon laid out his preferred agenda for the upcoming legislative term, contrasting his policy positions with those of Pillai and the governing Liberal party.

Top of his mind is the cost-of-living in the Yukon and the fact the territory has led Canada in inflation rates for eight of the last nine months.

“Unfortunately, the response from government has been meagre at best; we haven’t seen any new initiatives, any new policies put forward by the government to address that huge challenge,” Dixon said.

For their part, Pillai and others in his government have argued they have used things such as energy rebates to help ease the burden from inflation.

When talking about the cost of living, Dixon focuses on housing and transportation as two areas where he thinks action needs to be taken.

On housing, he says the Yukon needs deregulation for landlords and that building lots need to be opened up for development faster.

The development piece is pretty much universally agreed on by the three political parties, though the Yukon Party still says the Liberals have not been acting quickly enough.

“We haven’t seen any urgency from the government to get lots out to market, we haven’t seen any urgency around the supply of new rental units,” Dixon said.

He does agree with the federal Liberals’ new plan to remove the GST from the construction of new rental units, but said these policies take time to take effect and this should have been done when first promised seven years ago.

“If they had done it back when they said they were going to do it, I think it would have actually helped,” Dixon said. “Unfortunately, I think it’s a little bit too little too late.”

He further contrasts his view with that of the other two parties in his criticism of recent rental caps and eviction protections passed by the Liberal government, which he says are disincentivizing people from wanting to be landlords.

“We continue to hear from landlords that the imposition of the new policies that come out of the Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) with the NDP are causing landlords to flee the market rather than enter the market,” Dixon said.

“And that’s unfortunately just the wrong direction.”

Another part of the cost-of-living equation is the cost of food and other supplies that are trucked into the Yukon.

To alleviate these costs, Dixon says the elimination of the carbon tax and a territorial gas tax holiday will help.

Considering there was a $50-million budget surplus in the spring, Dixon said the territory could easily afford the temporary gas tax holiday.

He would also like to see the carbon tax removed from the cost of heating fuels.

This runs counter to the Liberals’ agenda as laid out in their Our Clean Future plans.

“Unfortunately, the government hasn’t taken a single one of our suggestions and continues to provide inadequate support when it comes to the cost of living for Yukoners,” Dixon said.

Another theme for Dixon’s criticisms of the Liberal government – and an area in which the NDP is in agreement with them – is the lack of services in rural Yukon.

Over the summer, rural Yukoners have dealt with intermittent closures of several rural health clinics, reductions in EMS services, the closures of highway rest stops and the planned closures of several rural waste transfer stations.

Dixon called this an “over-arching lack of connection with rural Yukon.”

“We think that’s really unfortunate, and we intend to raise that as a serious concern when the legislature resumes,” he said.

On energy, Dixon says the territory needs to focus on permanent infrastructure and stop relying on temporary diesel generators, which he blames for rate increases proposed by the Yukon’s electricity utilities.

After outlining his position and what he says is a needed change in direction, Dixon said if Pillai doesn’t call an election, the NDP should abandon the CASA to 
force one.

The Yukon Party and Liberal party are tied for number of seats in the legislature, but the NDP has an agreement with the Liberals – signed last Jan. 31 – allowing them to form a government.

“Ultimately, I hope that (Pillai) does that on his own but if he doesn’t, it falls to the NDP to stop propping up the Liberal government and let Yukoners have a say in the way we’re going to move forward,” Dixon said.

“It’s time for an election.”