A strong recovery requires leadership, bold ideas, and action — and we need your help! Add your name if you'll stand with Currie Dixon and the Yukon Party!
The Yukon Party is committed to improving transparency and accountability in Yukon politics while strengthening our democracy
If elected, the Yukon Party would enact the following measures:
- Cap political contributions from individuals or businesses.
- Close the loophole that allows Parties to hide the source of political donations.
- Legislate a mandatory review of the Elections Act every 5 years.
“Yukon voters need to know the source of donations to territorial political parties, so that they can have confidence in our political system,” said Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon. “Implementing a cap on political contributions and ensuring that electors know the source of financial donations to political parties will help make our political system more open and transparent.”
Currently there is no limit on the amount of money that individuals or businesses can give a political party. Political parties can also hide the source of significant amounts of donations.
In the 2019/20 reporting year, the Liberal Party abused a loophole in the current rules to hide the source of over $100,000 in political donations. This means that Yukon voters, the Conflicts Commissioner, and the Chief Electoral Officer do not know the source of the vast majority of money that the Liberal Party raised in 2019/20. Further, in 2016 the Liberal Party accepted the largest political donation in the Yukon’s history - $50,000 from one company.
“Financial contributions are an entirely legitimate way for individuals and businesses to support political parties, but having no cap at all on donations makes Yukon an outlier in Canada,” said Dixon. “Yukon voters deserve to know if an individual or business has donated large sums of money to a political party.”
“In both Ottawa and Whitehorse, the Liberal Party has strained the public’s faith in our political system, and reforms are needed to build back the public’s trust,” said Dixon. “Closing this loophole that the Liberals have exploited will help build back the public’s trust.”
In addition to capping annual donations, and closing the loophole that has allowed the Liberals to hide the source of their financial donations, the Yukon Party will add a mandatory five-year review to the Elections Act. A regular review of the Elections Act will help ensure that caps, limits, or thresholds in the Act remain at an appropriate level.
Background:
In their 2016 election platform, the Yukon Liberal Party committed to legislating fixed election dates, allowing a non-partisan committee to develop options for electoral reform, and creating a Lobbyist Registry. All three of those promises have been broken.
The Liberal Government has completely ignored its commitment to fixed-elections dates.
In 2019 the Liberals appointed an electoral reform committee with several members that had explicit political affiliations. When it became obvious the Liberals were stacking the deck, the Chair resigned and the entire process collapsed. Since then the Liberals have ignored the issue of electoral reform.
In 2018 the Liberals created legislation for a Lobbyist Registry, but never passed the necessary regulations to bring it into force. There still remains no Lobbyist Registry in the Yukon.
Since breaking all of their platform commitments related to Yukon’s electoral process they have also violated several other Yukon political conventions.
In 2018 the Liberals were caught not reporting $20,000 worth of donations and only reported it, after the legal deadline, when asked about it in the Legislative Assembly.
In 2020 they used a loophole in the rules for political donations to hide the source of over $100,000 in political donations.
In 2018 the Liberal Party used their majority in the Legislative Assembly to vote down proposed changes to Yukon’s electoral boundaries that came from an independent commission chaired by former Chief Justice Ron Veale.
This unprecedented gerrymandering has greatly skewed the number of voters in some ridings. Despite passing amendments to the Access to Information and Personal Privacy (ATIPP) legislation in 2018, the Liberal Government has refused to bring forward the necessary regulations to bring thins legislation into force. As such, the rules for ATIPP remain unchanged.
