The Yukon’s official Opposition says the government is creating more public sector jobs while failing to help private businesses expand their workforce.

“Over the last few years, the Liberal government has been quick to take credit for economic growth in the territory,” Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon told the Star last Thursday.

“But what we’ve seen, unfortunately, when we look at the job numbers is that that growth has occurred primarily in the public sector. 

“That is not healthy for the territory,” he said.

A Yukon Party release issued last week noted that in November 2016, when the Liberals were first elected, the territory’s Bureau of Statistics reported 8,800 public employees in the Yukon and 13,300 people either self-employed or working for the private sector.

The bureau’s latest stats from December 2022 show 1,900 more public sector jobs in the territory, and 500 fewer self-employed or private sector workers.

“(Yukon businesses) have expressed to us over and over again, that the rate of growth of the public service really affects the private sector,” Dixon said.

“It hurts their ability to recruit staff and their ability to grow as businesses.”

Geraldine Van Bibber, the party’s economic development critic, said the party has “heard over the past few years from the private sector about the difficulties they are facing when it comes to attracting employees.

“From an economic standpoint, this is a startling trend for anyone who values a vibrant private sector and for the multitude of Yukon businesses that contribute so much to our economy.

“We can only hope this trend reverses itself soon.”

The Star contacted the Yukon Chamber of Commerce on Friday for comment, but executive director Shayna Hammer wasn’t available before publication this afternoon.

Denny Kobayashi, the chamber’s former executive director, wrote a letter to then-premier Sandy Silver in February 2022 voicing business concerns over paid sick leave, minimum wage increases and public sector growth.

“This growth in the public sector is seeing employees leaving the private and self-employed sectors to join the public sector in increasing numbers, which has resulted in increased costs for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) to recruit and retain employees in a market that is struggling to attract and retain employees,” Kobayashi wrote. He called the trend “highly disturbing.”

The government stands by its work, though.

A statement provided by spokesperson Matthew Cameron last week called the YP release misleading and selective.

The YP release referenced employment statistics from November 2022, Cameron noted, though the latest figures are from a December 2022 report published Jan. 10.

That report shows a 300-job increase in the private sector from the previous month.

Further, Cameron noted the Bureau of Statistics includes all those working in one of the four levels of government within the territory – municipal, First Nations, territorial and federal – when looking at public sector employment.

Premier Ranj Pillai said last week the government supported Yukon businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic and support for the private sector remains important as the territory moves out of the pandemic.

“As we see the federal government starting to reduce spending, and they talked about austerity, the focus has to be growth in the private sector,” he said.

Pillai said increasing public sector jobs has been important over the past number of years, especially in the face of the pandemic and labour shortages in health care and education.

He said the Yukon Party has asked for more public services in the territory, and to criticize growth in the sector is hypocritical.

The government statement provided to the Star called the YP release a “veiled threat” to public servants and their jobs.

Dixon said he doesn’t want to cut public sector jobs, though. He said growth in the public sector has been necessary, but it has come without attention to growing the private sector.

“We think that there needs to be a real clear policy agenda set forth to grow the private sector and allow the small businesses that make the territory so special to grow and thrive,” he said.

Beyond job numbers, Dixon said the government has held back the private sector through policies like rent control, a paid sick day rebate and an annual minimum wage increase tied to inflation. 

These initiatives are part of a Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) the Liberals negotiated with the NDP in 2021.

If that agreement isn’t renegotiated by Tuesday, it will expire, and the policies within it could be repealed.

Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn said in November 2022 that the government was looking to end rent control after this month, for instance.

Criticisms of those CASA initiatives are nothing new from the YP. Neither are its attacks on public sector growth.

The YP used the last day of the 2022 fall sitting to ask about the increase in public sector jobs under the Liberals.

According to the latest Public Accounts report published in October 2022, the territory spent just over $716 million on public sector personnel.

That’s close to a $25-million increase from 2021, and a $182 million increase from 2016, when spending was about $534 million.

Dixon criticized Silver in that final question period.

“This massive 34-percent increase in the size of the public service is clearly the defining legacy of this premier,” he said in the last question period of 2022.

Dixon said then the rate of public sector growth is unsustainable.

Silver responded to Dixon’s questions on Nov. 24, saying a large portion of that increase is due to temporary jobs created during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Outside of that,” Silver told the legislature, “we have done a yeoman’s job of actually making sure that we are providing the programs and services necessary for Yukoners, and doing so with a conscientious lens to make sure we have the government grow at a sustainable rate for the programs and services that Yukoners deserve.”

The Department of Health and Social Services added the most public sector jobs, Silver said, with 20.6 FTE (full-time equivalents) created for Mental Wellness and Substance Abuse Services.

Silver said the Yukon Party has its own history of spending more on public sector personnel.

Silver was referencing increased spending between 2003 and 2004, as well as from 2007-2008. Money spent on public employees rose approximately $19.4 million and $24 million, respectively.

In the six years prior to 2016, under Yukon Party leadership, spending on public sector jobs went up about $121.5 million.

In the six years before that, also under Yukon Party leadership, that spending rose close to $164 million.

The size of these increases varies, but in the last two decades, annual spending on public sector personnel has gone up consistently, regardless of the party in power.