Photo by Whitehorse Star
Yukon Party leader Currie Dixon
YP: how will paid sick leave be funded?
The argument over a mandatory paid sick leave program continued last week in the legislature between the Liberal government and the Yukon Party.
The argument over a mandatory paid sick leave program continued last week in the legislature between the Liberal government and the Yukon Party.
Currie Dixon, the leader of the Yukon Party, asked the government about how the program would work, and specifically on how it would be funded.
“This recommendation has been deeply concerning to Yukon businesses. Many small businesses are struggling to emerge from the pandemic, and this announcement could not have come at a worse time,” Dixon said.
“Will the premier agree to change course and set aside these recommendations from his employment minister to impose this massive new cost on small businesses?”
Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn tackled the response.
“The member opposite is absolutely correct. Through the Confidence and Supply Agreement, we struck a panel to look at making some permanent sick leave provisions for Yukoners throughout the board.
“We heard from hundreds of Yukoners through the engagement that we put together. There was a lot of input into the whole plan.
“We have tabled recommendations to the government, as per our agreement in the Confidence and Supply Agreement, and government is now considering what to do with those recommendations.”
He said he knows that “there is a lot of concern in the business community. We have heard those concerns. We are actually working with the business community to assuage their fears.
“We have the recommendations before us. We are considering what to do. The recommended approach was to look at options to go forward on how to actually implement the report.
“We haven’t made those decisions yet, and we will work with business to actually make sure that the recommendations are fair and reasonable, because one of the key pillars of that report was to not cause small business any harm.”
Dixon reiterated his main point.
“This cannot come at a worse time for Yukon small businesses or our tourism industry. To quote the Yukon Chamber of Commerce in a letter to the premier last month: ‘… feel like their government is kicking them while they are down.’
“I think that small businesses can be forgiven for wondering about this when the employment minister himself makes the recommendation to change the employment legislation.
“I know that the government likes to remind small businesses that all is well in the economy and that they are doing fine, but we constantly hear from the business community that they are struggling.”
Premier Sandy Silver jumped into the fray at that point.
“We do have an excellent rapport with the chambers — plural — whether it be mining or businesses. We’ll continue to work with the chambers, and we’ll continue to offer, whether it be through COVID spending or other relief, some of the best programs in Canada. We’ll continue with those great partnerships.”
Silver said he found it “really interesting to hear the member opposite — again, another part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement that the member opposite wholeheartedly endorsed and now he’s saying not to do it.”
Silver was referring to the offer Dixon and the Yukon Party made to the NDP last fall in an effort to topple the government.
At the time, Dixon offered to endorse and continue the Confidence and Supply Agreement the Liberals and NDP signed last spring to prop up the government if the NDP would join the Yukon Party in bringing the Liberals down.
“They can’t have it both ways,” Silver said.
“They can’t say one thing and then do another, but it seems that they just keep on doing this.
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Comments (20)
Up 8 Down 1
Groucho d'North on Mar 18, 2022 at 11:12 am
Here is another cluster of ducks created by the Liberals. They have a very poor understanding of how to create social programs that actually work to provide the desired objectives. To wit: The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was launched to support the many thousands who were suddenly out of work due to the government-imposed restrictions in response to the COVID pandemic. After a few weeks of CERB in operation the Trudeau Liberals pumped the brakes and modified the program after thousands of Canadians applied to it. They amended the program to say that the first payment of $2K was an 'advance' and it would need to be repaid. So now the Trudeau Liberals are clawing back their $2K by poaching payments to seniors in their other monthly support payments which is creating real hardships for many on fixed incomes. The CERB was to assist Canadians feeling the pinch, and now the government is creating more hardship by squeezing seniors to repay what they cannot afford. Ivory Tower logic. The elite political class has no empathy or understanding for the challenges senior Canadians are now facing with runaway inflation, soaring costs of living and a fixed income that limits the financial options available to them. By the way, the politicians get a raise on April 1st. The Prime Misery will receive $365,200 annually. I do not believe he is worth a fraction of that amount.
Up 5 Down 4
Liberalism Kills! on Mar 17, 2022 at 12:27 pm
Well, well, well there Sheepchaser - The Conservatives finally won their fight with Liberal party for disclosure on Liberal Economic policy… The YP discovered that the Liberal Identitarian Money Printing Presses (LIMP-P) actually contain references to rainbows, unicorn fart machines, and other Tickle-Me-Elmo fancies and decided to give the Liberal Strategy a whirl…
However, Currie and the YP failed to understand that Trudeau and Silver are gifted Jedi Knights employing their Jedi mind tricks on the weak-minded (Liberals) - Well, admittedly it’s an unsubstantiated rumour but there is some merit to it that warrants further investigation… But I did overhear a conversation at 4th and Main by the Federal building between a Social Worker and a Lawyer referring to some sinister overlord, comments about the force, a need to quash the resistance, and some other remarks about droids… Something like, Liberal supporters could not find a droid if they had one sticking out their keisters and were in act of pulling their pants up…
Seems a little harsh but many Liberals would qualify for home support due to their cognitive dysfunction. New Liberal Party membership cards will bear the logo: “Oderint dum metuant''. Which translates, roughly, as ''let them hate as long as they fear.”
Nice democracy you got there! Lord Emperor Justin is pleased! General Silver smirks with the psychotic grin of a Ring Wraith - One ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them…
Liberalism has changed. When the neo-cons/neo-liberals left the party they did so because of its populist engagement. The Liberals who left the party to become the neo-cons were starved for intelligent discussion about the state of things while the remaining Liberals languished in a state of intellectual hypoxia preferring the whimsy of emotionalism… The Liberals eschewed pragmatism for titillation, thought for feeling, intellectual engagement for the roller coaster of emotional whimsy. Like a tempestuous child…
They whine, stammer and tantrum… It’s not our fault!!! They are the party of applied victimology in which the other is perpetually aggrieved by the other in a boil of internecine conflict.
Liberalism is progressive, it is reductionist, and it is divisive with an emphasis on classist categoricals given weight by counts of the historic grievances that “matter” and are given political expediency under the pretences of equality through equity…
So you get unresolvable grievances because while it is claimed that we are all one there is an opposing movement which asserts that we are all special in a unique way… Cray, cray!
Up 8 Down 13
Politico on Mar 16, 2022 at 11:28 am
@ Bill It's amazing how easily the right wing makes up lies about people they don't know. I have never been a Liberal, never worked for the government, I ran 2 businesses in my life time and I'm living on CPP and my savings. It seems that lying is easier for the conservative than actually learning the truth, right Trumper!
Up 16 Down 4
Romper Room on Mar 16, 2022 at 9:15 am
Whenever the Liberals do not want anything said, they trot out Richard Mostyn. I'm sure he thinks he's very clever taking ten paragraphs to repeat himself in 5 word sentences all to say, "We don't know yet who we are going to pin the cost of our NDP payola on. But we have to implement it or we won't get our pensions."
Then angry Sandy jumps in to remind the YP that they would have sold out too!
This is laughable. What a crew.
Up 8 Down 8
Why on earth would government fund it? on Mar 16, 2022 at 7:32 am
It's a cost of doing business. Every time there's a slight change to worker benefits, the Chambers jump up and holler. Paid sick leave is nothing new, and literally all the evidence over the years point to benefits far outweighing costs. In all but hourly paid retail and service sector workers, salaried workers are paid whether they are at work or not (vacation, parental leave, training etc). The benefits of sick people staying home when ill, and not spreading whatever they have to their co- workers and customers (or staying home with a sick child instead of that child spreading illness at daycare) have proven to result in LESS lost time overall for businesses. And although a very small percentage of workers will take whatever days available, most workers will use sick days only when genuinely ill.
Up 9 Down 4
Liberalism Kills! on Mar 15, 2022 at 8:09 pm
Wow Sheepchaser, wow! It is the Official Opposition’s job whether they be Liberal, Conservative or, NDP, to hold the governing party to account - For everything! FFS! If they just went along with the Liberals then we would be in a de facto dictatorship, right Kate?
You can see that Kate White and the Dippers are of the same ilk as Silver, and Trudeau. Because the Conservative party is able to provide some minimal appearance of accountability Trudeau and Silver and groupie White can obscure the perception of a “basic dictatorship”… But, quite often lately when you hold the Liberal card in the right light you see it… Fascism, friendly Fascism but it’s there…
Liberalism Kills - How do I know? Because an individual who is on Court Ordered conditions can be free to take the life of another… We see this time and again here in the Yukon but the powers that be gas up the unicorn fart machine, opiate the masses with feel goodisms, all the while operating in a state of amnestic confusion (most respectful interpretation) babbling on about some legal hooey here, and some legal hooey there and presto, the offender becomes the victim in the alchemy of a Liberalist ideology… It really is quite disturbing to see it from the inside…
The thing of it is though, as they pat themselves on the back for their just practices they are harming the offender, the victim, and society… And they have no clue because there is no recourse to any real liability, they act with no regard to impunity, and there is no such thing as rate your Justice Practitioner. But, I must acknowledge that this is by design and by necessity, though it does not change the reality of its existence and its will.
What I am saying is that there is this romantic image of the legal system as some contest for the truth. It is not, it is entirely politicized, and this is wrong, it is a deep moral wrongness, malum in se. But we are all complicit in our acceptance of the lie, we complete the transformation from wrong to wrongs, a great amorphous mala in se…
Up 9 Down 2
bonanzajoe on Mar 15, 2022 at 5:36 pm
Clayton Delany. Sandy is saving that surplus for the next election, so he can say to voters, look guys we Libs have a nice big surplus. This will mean votes for them. It's typical Lib commie tactics.
Up 12 Down 18
Sheepchaser on Mar 15, 2022 at 2:01 pm
So YP wants to scrap the gas tax and have paid sick leave funded by government? They made those arguments on same day. Hmmm…
What reality has the last crawling, gagging, coughing, gasping, emaciated corpse of conservative pragmatism and self respect crawled into here?
Rage on, boys. Please keep demonstrating how deeply unfit for leadership you all are.
Up 19 Down 6
Mitch Holder on Mar 15, 2022 at 10:32 am
More govvies, asking us how to pay for things while holding all our money. Maybe ask the people who perpetuated your essential existence this whole time while contending with poverty who didn't take any sick days instead of working from home on a laptop they can never afford. Idiots.
Up 27 Down 10
Clayton Delany on Mar 14, 2022 at 8:48 pm
So Sandy doesn't want to use that $40M surplus (hahaha) to remove the gas tax and seems to not want to use it to pay for his paid sick leave for anyone who wants to take an extra Friday or Tuesday on a long weekend.
Many corporations have done the 'paid sick leave thing' and found out in short order that as soon as people are eligible for it they take it.. (sick or not).
If YTG wants to force this through (through Kate pinning Sandy's arm behind his back - kinda like she did with the rent cap) then YTG should pony up the money instead of forcing it onto business owners (small and large).
We all know that Sandy and his cronies would be gone stat! If it weren't for the 3rd place, 3 person, tail wagging the dog right now and allowing him to remain Supreme Emperor. (The Grand Poo-bah!)
Hey Sandy! The Emperor has no clothes.
Hey Kate! 'Let them eat cake!'
Meanwhile I drove to town on the sketchiest roads of the entire winter today... maybe get your crews out and try to not be so cheap with the sanding.. Hmmmm? I wonder if the plows weren't out because of the price of fuel?
Can't make this stuff up!
Up 26 Down 2
Dont forget about healthcare on Mar 14, 2022 at 6:38 pm
The same way they funded a MRI machine, but not the techs to run it.
Up 25 Down 4
Max Mack on Mar 14, 2022 at 6:12 pm
"we struck a panel"
The panel was stacked with Liberal/NDP friendly folks. Of course, "the panel" made the pre-determined decision that paid sick leave for all workers (including casual and gig workers) should be a thing.
Where was the consultation with small business owners? Not the ones that are getting the cash handouts by the bucketful, but the other ones that are struggling to survive? You know, the ones that Silver and Trudeau don't seem to give a fig about?
Where was the consultation with regular folks that understand that this proposed policy may cost employers perhaps many millions of dollars -- costs which must be passed onto the consumer?
With inflation spiralling, a housing "crisis", a tight labour market, and many businesses struggling after the imposition of government covid policies, this is the worst possible time to push through another costly social program.
Up 26 Down 8
Liberalism Kills! on Mar 14, 2022 at 6:10 pm
Dear BnR - Come on man! A degree is the new grade 12. Education has been dumbed down to the point that we have College and University graduates who cannot write a complete sentence, cannot spell, or communicate a thought articulately enough to give it shared meaning. This is all part of the descent into Liberalized madness. Society killers.
In the Liberal dystopia intelligence is a disability… And we are there.
At the next election let’s end the Liberal streak… It’s time for a change!!!
Up 21 Down 9
Matt on Mar 14, 2022 at 5:31 pm
No employee should be entitled to more than 365 days of paid sick leave in a year unless.....they work for the YTG in which case 367 days out of every year shall be an entitlement.
Up 6 Down 12
bonanzajoe on Mar 14, 2022 at 5:20 pm
BonfireJim, are you one of those high paid government workers? If so, a few extra tax dollars shouldn't hurt you or the other gov. workers.
Up 28 Down 66
BnR on Mar 14, 2022 at 4:25 pm
How will it get paid?
Same way the Yukon Party’s center of hope fiasco got paid for. Same way Dawson and Watson hospitals got paid for. Same way the cat and maintenance of the Wolverine mine is going to get paid for.
For a guy with a university degree, Currie isn’t that bright.
Up 64 Down 14
Bill on Mar 14, 2022 at 4:23 pm
@Politico
However given that you are likely one of those high paid Liberals I wouldn't expect anything less. Where in the hell do you think the wealth of this nation comes from - trees? It is the private sector that creates the wealth we have or haven't you figured that out yet. No of course not - as long as you get "everything you believe you are entitled to" you take no issue.
That is the problem with the leftest philosophical thinking - only for themselves.
Up 46 Down 19
Liberalism Kills! on Mar 14, 2022 at 2:40 pm
Hellllooooh? The only reason YEU/GY/YG employees need sick leave is because of the ongoing toxicity that is fostered and encouraged by its leadership and the low IQ hordes we call public servants (in name only). Harassment, bullying, and discrimination are huge problems that are covered up through the burden of extensive processes that are “meant” to wear down the individual complainant through adversarial mechanisms in the hope that they will give up…
The process becomes the punishment! Much like Mostyn’s regulated abuse through PIDWA - From the get go the Ombudsman’s Office tells you that the process takes place outside of the Collective Agreement - No Union representation through which you can be targeted, harassed, and fired!
I would write to all parties involved to ask them how they can legally do this, as the Union is the sole bargaining agent for all Union employees, but not when there is wrongdoing… You’re on your own… Well played YG, well played!
Up 24 Down 71
Politico on Mar 14, 2022 at 2:26 pm
Every financial argument the YP has comes down to it's hurting small business. Too bad they aren't interested in what's best for the employees!
Up 22 Down 61
BonfireJim on Mar 14, 2022 at 2:21 pm
Do not see why we couldn't pay a bit more in taxes to afford it? Seems like a pretty cut and dry solution.