The Yukon Party (YP) continues to hammer Premier Sandy Silver and the territorial government over a contentious decision to double the borrowing limit for the territory.

In the two days the legislature has sat this session, YP members have bedeviled Silver over the issue, which dates backs to 2018.

At the time, Silver told the legislature he had no plans to borrow more money to help finance government projects.

However, nine days after making that statement, Silver wrote to federal officials with a request to raise the Yukon’s borrowing cap to $800 million from $400 million.

There is no evidence, though, the government has utilized that higher limit as yet.

That decision to increase the debt cap, according to the YP, means the premier “deceived” the legislature and the public. MLAs from the party have railed against the move since at least last fall.

In his defence, Silver says that while the borrowing cap was increased at his request, the government hasn’t used it to borrow more money, and that is the crux of the debate.

During the question periods last Thursday and again Monday, the YP stated “the premier repeatedly told the assembly that he had no interest in increasing the debt cap.

“On October 2, 2018, he said this: ‘I’ll just say up front that we are not contemplating taking on any extra debt for our five-year capital plan.’”

“Now we know that, just nine days after that, the premier wrote to the federal Finance minister and asked him to double the debt limit to $800 million. So, it would appear that the premier misled the assembly,” said YP MLA Brad Cathers, the party’s finance critic.

“Can the premier explain this, Mr. Speaker?”

In response, Silver said: “What I can say to the legislative assembly is that responsible borrowing is absolutely part of strong fiscal management. It helps with the preservation of capital, liquidity on management, and also return on investments.

“The Yukon government’s current borrowing limit is at $800 million, which was set by regulations under the Yukon Act, which is federal legislation,” Silver said.

“The limit was increased by the Government of Canada in September 2020 from $400 million to $800 million. This was accomplished through an amendment to the Yukon Act regulations.

“That debt limit was raised for all three territories at the same time. This debt limit increase allows for more financial flexibility that may be needed in the future to support a growing economy and steadily transition to a clean energy future.”

The debt limit has been raised by Yukon Party governments as well, Silver said

“I don’t recall them ever looking for legislative authority to do so in the past. We are happy to see that the debt limit has increased. Again, we use it for corporations, as the members opposite did — the Yukon Development Corporation, the Yukon Energy Corporation, the Yukon Housing Corporation, and the Yukon Hospital Corporation — to currently access a modest amount of borrowing room available in order to deliver their programs and their mandates.”

Cathers fired back: “For years, the premier denied having any interest in increasing the debt cap. When the debt cap was doubled to $800 million, he pointed to the federal government and tried to deny responsibility.

“Now we have learned that the premier himself actually wrote a letter to the federal government on Oct. 11, 2018, asking for the debt cap to be raised.

“Previously, on October 24, 2017, was another time when the premier denied wanting to increase the debt cap,” Cathers said.

“Here is what he said then: ‘These are some tough decisions to be made moving forward, but to answer the member opposite’s question: Have we touched the debt cap? No. Do we want to? No, we don’t want to. We want to make sure that we work inside of our means…’”

Silver told the assembly in response to that question that “reasonable borrowing is absolutely a part of strong fiscal management. We have the lowest borrowing so far of all three territories.

“The majority of that borrowing was done under the previous government’s hand. We have a current borrowing limit of $800 million.

“The member opposite would have you believe that we were not vocal about the fact that the borrowing limit was increased.

“We’ve been up in the legislative assembly many times talking about that increase,” the premier added.

“Talking about increasing your borrowing limit is not necessarily spending that debt. Again, Mr. Speaker, we increased the debt limit.”