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WHITEHORSE – The Yukon Party Official Opposition is condemning the territorial Liberal government for unprecedented political interference with important non-partisan offices of the Yukon Legislative Assembly by denying necessary funding to Elections Yukon, the Child and Youth Advocate, the Ombudsman/Information and Privacy Commissioner, and the Legislative Assembly Office.
The Chief Electoral Officer, Yukon’s Child and Youth Advocate, and Yukon’s Ombudsman have all written to the Speaker, expressing serious concerns with this interference with their budgets. The Speaker has also written a public letter to the Minister of Finance, formally reminding him of the legal requirements to submit the budgets approved by the all-party Members’ Services Board to the Legislative Assembly. It is clear from the letters from the independent officers that budget cuts ordered by the Liberal government through the Management Board Secretariat will impact the ability to carry out their independent duties.
The Chief Electoral Officer goes as far as to say this decision imposed by the Liberal government, “…compromises operational readiness and creates uncertainty later in this fiscal year with major impacts on planning, capacity, and risk. The updated budget approved by MSB was specifically to address structure and capacity issues as we head into a very complex election year.”
The Child and Youth Advocate’s letter stated, “I am compelled to bring to your attention my concerns of political interference by the Yukon Government in the legislated budget approval process for the Yukon Child and Youth Advocate Office (YCAO).”
The Ombudsman says as outlined in the Ombudsman Act, it should be up to the Members’ Services Board and the Legislative Assembly to decide funding, not Management Board, to preserve independence of the office.
“The territorial Liberal government is using financial shortages caused by their own wasteful spending as an excuse to interfere with budgets for Elections Yukon, the Child and Youth Advocate, the Ombudsman/Information and Privacy Commissioner, and the Legislative Assembly Office, but this political interference is actually illegal,” noted Yukon Party Finance and Justice Critic Brad Cathers. “Only Members’ Services Board and the Legislative Assembly itself have the legal authority to approve – or reduce – the budgets for the independent offices. That the Chief Electoral Officer has taken the unprecedented step of calling out the government for threatening Elections Yukon’s ability to successfully conduct a territorial election next year shows how just serious the impacts of this illegal political interference by the Liberals could become.”
This political interference by the Liberal government is the same reason why the opposition caucus budgets have been frozen, as reported in the media recently. The Liberal Cabinet can access funding from all departments, but their decision to interfere with the budget for the independent Legislative Assembly Office impacts the opposition caucuses' ability to do their jobs.
You can find the letters from Elections Yukon, the Child and Youth Advocate Office, and the Ombudsman here.
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Contact:
Tim Kucharuk
Media Director
(867) 689-7874
