In an unusual rebuke to the governing Liberals, the Yukon Party and NDP joined forces on Wednesday to bar cabinet ministers from delivering scheduled daily speeches in the legislature without the opposition’s permission.

Premier Ranj Pillai stood in the legislature calling it a “dark day for democracy,” and declaring the joint NDP-Yukon Party effort an “unholy union.”

The “ministerial statements” are used in the majority of provincial and territorial legislatures in Canada to allow the government to inform the public about issues of their choosing.

The new rules passed in a party-line motion.

They will now require the government to get the permission of at least one opposition party house leader to deliver these statements.

Both opposition parties say the privilege has been abused by this government, and that the statement time is being used essentially as the government’s soapbox, often re-hashing the content of press releases.

“At this point in time, I think I’ve responded to over 200 ministerial statements,” NDP Leader Kate White told reporters. “So I’m a little bit salty on this matter.”

It is not clear whether these types of statements are used every day in the other assemblies.

No opposition party member, however, could point to a precedent for the governing party being forced to ask the opposition leaders’ permission to deliver them.

Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon told reporters he thought Pillai’s response was overblown.

“They’ve used some very incendiary language about this,” Dixon said.

“If he genuinely believes this is the dark day for democracy, and this is undermining democracy, then he should call an election.”

White made light of the serious nature of the premier’s comments, declaring she might dress up as the “unholy union” for Halloween.

Pillai says it is a serious matter and will limit the government’s ability to keep the public informed.

He pointed to the use of these statements to inform the public about COVID vaccines, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and the search for children who disappeared after being sent to residential schools.

“Ministerial statements serve an important purpose,” he said – in a ministerial statement.

The perspective of the two opposition parties is that the government will still be able to deliver information on important issues.

“The Liberals will have every opportunity to provide ministerial statements moving forward but will simply need to co-operate with others to do so,” Yukon Party MLA Scott Kent told the legislature.

The plan for today’s ministerial statement is for an update on fall COVID and flu vaccines.

White said this is an issue on which she would allow the government to make a ministerial statement.

“They said they want to talk about vaccinations (today); I think that’s probably really relevant,” White said.

“When they told us they were replacing the batteries and the smoke alarms in the Thomson Centre, I probably would say no.”

The NDP and Liberals have a Confidence and Supply Agreement in place allowing for the Liberals to govern, but the NDP is not required to support the government on this type of motion as part of that agreement.