The opioid and street drug crisis is being seen through three very different lenses by the Yukon’s three political parties.

During question period in the legislature on Tuesday, a Yukon Party MLA grilled the government on its handling of the crisis.

Brad Cathers asked Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee what it’s done since declaring a substance abuse state of emergency at the start of the year.

Since then, Cathers noted, “the government has focused the vast majority of its efforts on harm reduction. While we support effective harm-reduction measures, there needs to be an increased focus on prevention, treatment, and enforcement.”

When the government made its emergency declaration, he recalled, “they committed to increasing on-the-land treatment options. Since then, how many new on-the-land treatment spaces have been created?”

McPhee did not answer directly. The declaration, she said, “is absolutely critical.

“It is a call to action for all governments in the territory and for all Yukoners, in fact. This is a health issue. This is a health problem.

“We must work together,” McPhee added. “We are taking action. We have dedicated budget resources to the substance use health emergency.”

She said the government is “taking the most progressive steps toward substance use harm reduction in the history of the Yukon Territory.

“Building on our 2018 opioid action plan, we have opened the first supervised consumption site here in the North (in downtown Whitehorse) to increase safety for those who use substances,” the minister said. “We have improved access to social, medical, and mental wellness.’

Cathers then asked why more resources aren’t being devoted to enforcement as a means of handling the drug crisis.

“In addition to increasing treatment options and providing increased focus on prevention, government also needs to provide the resources necessary to the RCMP to ensure that they can target illegal drug dealers,” Cathers said.

“While law enforcement alone will not solve this crisis, charging the drug dealers responsible for the sale of these toxic drugs needs to be a priority.

“Why hasn’t the government provided additional resources to the RCMP to ensure that those profiting from the sale and proliferation of these illegal drugs are held accountable?” he asked.

McPhee trotted out some numbers to support her position. The current fiscal year’s budget has more than $5.5 million to support the government’s immediate response to the substance use health emergency, she told the house.

This includes more than $1.1 million to enhance the supervised consumption site to expand access and support for people who are in need.

“More than $850,000 will allow the safer supply program to be expanded to rural communities and to increase availability here in Whitehorse,” McPhee said.

“Nearly $1.8 million will support additional mental health and social services throughout the territory and is part of the increased funding for policing services this year.

“Almost $300,000 will bolster the RCMP’s response to the toxic supply of illegal drugs here in the territory.”

Cathers had come armed with numbers of his own from the recently-released annual report from the Yukon RCMP.

“The minister again tries to paint a rosy picture, but the facts show otherwise,” he advised the house.

“Addictions services are not meeting the needs of some Yukoners. Prevention is an afterthought for this government.

“When it comes to enforcement, the RCMP’s most recent year in review shows that their funding over the past four years has not increased enough to meet demand on services,” Cathers said.

The RCMP report shows that sexual assault is up 31 per cent, robbery has risen 25 per cent, and trafficking offences have escalated 90 per cent, he noted.

“Their operational funding, on the other hand, has barely increased under this Liberal government,” Cathers said.

“Will the minister agree to increase funding to the RCMP to help them target the drug dealers who are selling these illegal and toxic drugs, charge them, prosecute them, and put them behind bars?”

The report he referred to was provided to reporters after question period.

It shows 23, 581 calls for service from 2020 to 2021, down from 24, 547 the year previous.

“The Yukon RCMP has seen a steady increase in annual calls for service in the past five years. The occurrence count for 2020/2021 indicates a slight decrease over the previous year; this variance can be attributed to COVID-19,” the report states.

Several categories of crimes are up, as might be expected, from 2016/17. Fifty-five sexual assaults have been recorded in that time period, an increase of 31 per cent.

Robbery offences are up 25 per cent for the same period. Kidnappings and abductions of all sorts have risen to 15, up 65 per cent.

Five offences related to deaths have been recorded, an increase of 55 per cent.

Assaults are up seven per cent, to 106 cases.

Drug offences paint an interesting picture.

While trafficking offences have skyrocketed, possession offences have gone in the other direction, falling 55 per cent.

McPhee told Cathers, “Once again, the members opposite have proven completely unreliable with respect to the facts regarding the RCMP.

“I would like to take the opportunity to draw attention to the fact that the RCMP have been working extremely hard. There have been their own public statements with respect to intercepting drugs here in the territory, intercepting weapons here in the territory, and, most recently, completing the investigations with respect to that in order to keep Yukoners safe.”

After question period, Cathers reiterated to reporters he believes the RCMP require more resources. He also emphasized he thinks treatment programs are equally important, particularly on-the-land initiatives.

He also said the budget for the RCMP has only increased by about a million dollars a year, and that isn’t enough to keep up.

“Our focus is that while we believe in effective harm-reduction programs, we believe there has to be more enforcement,” Cathers said.

“The government has not taken enough action on treatment and enforcement. Considering the substantial spike in crime across several categories, what we see in the report and hear repeatedly is that they just don’t have the resources they need to combat the illegal drug trade.

“We want to emphasize that enforcement alone is not going to solve the problem; it needs to be a big part of the picture.”

McPhee told reporters the RCMP budget has been increased by 15 per cent over the last few years.

“The Yukon Party doesn’t seem to think the RCMP is doing a very good job but I do,” she said. “Those are significant increases.

“We do have more officers per capita than most places in Canada. ”

Emily Tredger of the Yukon NDP stated flatly that she believes enforcement measures shouldn’t be relied on as part of an overall strategy to deal with the crisis.

“We were talking about overdoses and people with addictions, and enforcement isn’t going to change their addictions. What we need are things like treatment, harm reduction so they’re alive to access treatment, but enforcement isn’t going to fundamentally change anything,” Tredger said.

An emphasis on harm reduction is really important, she noted, “because if they’re not alive, they can’t access treatment.

“So many of the services that are available are concentrated in Whitehorse, so we’re seeing a real lack of services in the communities.”