The Yukon Party is calling out Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee on what it calls a junket that took her to Edinburgh, Scotland.

The trip – which cost almost $13,000 – took place Sept. 1-7, 2023.

The bill for accommodation alone was $8,253.74.

According to a Yukon government travel expenses report, McPhee and her ministerial advisor, Michele Shaw, travelled to Edinburgh to “attend meetings related to rural health care, justice and other shared priorities.”

According to a Yukon Party press release, the “junket” occurred as the Yukon’s rural health centres faced closures and service reductions.

“Watson Lake residents have been asking this minister to travel to the community for over two years to talk about long-term care, but have been met with silence,” Watson Lake MLA Patti McLeod said Monday.

“In the weeks before, during, and after her trip, rural Yukon saw health centre closures in Ross River, Beaver Creek, Teslin, Pelly Crossing, and others.

“Rural Yukoners are wondering why the minister felt it was better to jet off to Scotland instead of listening to our communities,” McLeod added.

The Yukon Party said the trip wasn’t revealed until the minister’s travel expenses report was posted online.

Expenditures for the trip for McPhee and Shaw were listed as follows in the YG report:

• Airfare: $4,065.22.

• Accommodation: $8,253.74.

• Other, such as per diems and taxi fares: $481.20.

• Total costs for the trip: $12,800.16.

Reporters met with Opposition Leader Currie Dixon following Monday’s question period in the legislature.

Dixon also questioned the timing of the trip, as well as the expenditure, while rural health centres were experiencing temporary closures.

“We saw health centres close for as much as a month,” Dixon said.

“In all that while, rather than going to any of those communities to meet with any of these communities and talk about finding solutions or meeting with staff to talk about the staff shortages in these communities, the minister refused to.

“In fact, just a few years ago, when the MLA for Watson Lake brought forward a petition that was signed by over 500 people from Watson Lake asking the minister of Health to come to the community and have a public meeting about long-term care, the minister refused because it was too far of a distance for her to go.

“Meanwhile, she’s willing to go to Scotland to have a series of meetings about rural health during a rural health care crisis in the Yukon, but she’s not willing to go to Yukon communities,” Dixon said.

He also raised the cost issue.

“You may not think that $13,000 is much money, but I certainly do,” he said.

“I think that staying in a hotel for $700 a night while there’s health care centres around the Yukon either closed or seeing reduced services, is just, quite frankly out of touch.”

(Jordan Owens, the cabinet’s director of communications, produced a document showing that Airbnbs in Scotland would cost anywhere from $462 to $992 CDN per night from Sept. 1-7, 2024.)

McPhee later clarified the cost of accommodation was $590/person/night.

“The reason we chose that accommodation, it was for location and for the fact that it could have been more than between four and 500 pounds per night per person. So it was the lesser of the costs.”

Dixon said, “For the minister to say on the one hand all Watson Lake needs is a Zoom meeting with town council and then jet off to Scotland for seven days to meet with an assortment of health professionals in Scotland, to ironically talk about rural health care, is a huge misalignment of priorities for this minister.”

Dixon then suggested, “Maybe if they had a few more castles down in Watson Lake, she might be willing to go down there, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.”

Dixon also questioned the lack of fanfare associated with the junket.

“The ministers put a press release out every time they go for coffee with another minister. And this, they didn’t say a word about,” he said.

“This wasn’t released until it was quietly put on the travel expenses site without any other mention. So I think that raises questions as well.”

He was asked how he thinks taxpayers would react to the belated news of the trip.

Dixon replied, “I think that there are a lot of places around the country and around North America that are dealing with challenges around rural health care, and so it begs the question why did the minister choose to go to Scotland for these types of meetings? It comes at a great cost.”

He also questioned the validity of Scotland itself as an authority on rural health care.

NDP Leader Kate White reluctantly weighed in on the matter after first saying, “That was uncomfortable, so I have nothing to say.”

When prompted, White said, “I would expect that any minister who was going to travel overseas on a learning expedition would have notes and the ability to say how come it was important and what was learned and what was going to be brought back up.

“The reality is, Scotland, everything is pretty close to the main centre, so to Glasgow or to Edinburgh; it’s not as spread out as the Yukon, it doesn’t have similar populations, it doesn’t have similar struggles and so that felt a little hollow, but I’m hoping that maybe we will get a press release that will say all the things that were learned in Scotland that will prove that it was worthwhile,” White added.

“But I would say it was uncomfortable to listen to because I have heard from folks in Watson Lake who really would like to talk about continuing care and I have heard from other folks in rural Yukon who would like the minister to visit.”

Speaking with media afterward, McPhee said an invitation from a Scottish politician on a cross-Canada tour prompted the overseas excursion.

“We had a connection almost immediately about shared projects that we were working on. And the invitation came from that.

“We did some extensive work ahead of time, based on the invitation that was sent to make sure that we would have a lot of folks to meet with that had shared priorities.”

The YG report lists the various Scottish officials McPhee met. They included Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for National Health Service Recovery, Health and Social Care; and Royal College of Surgeons and Scottish government officials.

She also met with Scottish government policy officials to discuss the implementation of the baby box project. (All newborn babies in Scotland will be given a box of essential items, containing things like clothes – from newborn up to six months, a digital under-arm thermometer, and bath and room thermometer.)

McPhee also discussed opportunities for tourism between Scotland and the Yukon, including a new Calgary-Edinburgh flight route.

McPhee also said she has visited many Yukon communities.

“I am in contact with the leaders in those communities, with chiefs and councils with respect to almost all of the issues I’ve just spoken about and others.”

McPhee then explained why she didn’t attend a meeting she was invited to in Watson Lake.

“I was invited to Watson Lake to attend a meeting with less than 48 hours’ notice. I don’t know if you know anything about my schedule, but it’s pretty full up to and including weeks out, and I was just not available to attend,” she said.

“The second invitation that came was from the council, and I attended remotely, and that was a few weeks ago. Minister (Richard) Mostyn was there in person.

“So one minister being there in person and we were three hours, I think, at that meeting and talked about a bunch of issues that were brought up by the agenda from the town council.

“It was entirely their agenda and included things like long-term care and justice issues.”

McPhee also said the Yukon is planning its own baby box program.

“I look forward to us announcing a program that will support Yukon families through the baby box program.”

When asked why the news of the Scotland junket didn’t emerge before this, McPhee said: “I don’t know. I think what happens is that this information is published online and becomes available. And I’m not sure about the timing of that.”