Yukon Party Proposes Solutions, Urges Government Action on Health Care Crisis

WHITEHORSE – The Yukon Party Official Opposition is again proposing solutions to fix the territory’s health crisis. To Yukoners' detriment, the Liberals have repeatedly failed to listen, or been slow to take action.

On Wednesday, the Yukon Legislative Assembly unanimously passed two Yukon Party motions that urged the government to take urgent action to improve access to doctors, following minor changes to those motions.

The first motion called for the government to allow American board-certified doctors, surgeons, and specialists to practice in the Yukon, speed up other U.S.-trained health professionals' licensing and launch a marketing campaign to recruit American-trained health professionals and Canadian health professionals currently working in the United States.

The other motion called for working with the Yukon Medical Association to reduce the administrative burden on doctors and increase doctors' time to see patients.

“Thousands of Yukoners don’t have a family doctor, while doctors are forced to waste time on needless paperwork instead of seeing more patients,” said Leader Currie Dixon. “We have presented ideas to the Liberal government, both our own and from health care professionals, but Premier Pillai and Minister McPhee haven’t taken the health care crisis seriously. We hope that these motions will finally prompt action from this out-of-touch Liberal-NDP government.”

During Question Period this week, the Yukon Party Official Opposition focused on the crisis in our health care system. Health Care Critic Brad Cathers asked why the Liberal government is cutting funding for physician recruitment and retention efforts by almost 50 percent in this year’s budget. The Minister denied cuts were taking place, even when presented with the $3.11 million reduction in her budget’s “Physician Recruitment/Retention Initiatives” line item.

The Yukon Party also suggested the Yukon government take advantage of the chaos south of the border and undertake a marketing campaign directed at U.S. doctors, surgeons, and other health professionals to make the Yukon their new home.

To that end, Yukon Party MLAs called on the government to allow U.S. board-certified doctors to practice, as one province has been successfully doing since early 2023. The Yukon Party first made that suggestion two years ago in Question Period on March 29, 2023, but the Liberals have failed to take any real action to make it happen:

“The Yukon could consider that approach and potentially recognize credentials of doctors trained and licensed in the US, the UK, and other countries with high standards of medical education.

“Will the government agree to discuss that possible solution with the Yukon Medical Association and the Yukon Medical Council and seek their views on a path forward?” (Hansard, page 3329, March 29, 2023)

The Yukon Medical Association (YMA) and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business have long identified burdensome paperwork for physicians as an issue that prevents doctors from spending more hours on patient care. Watson Lake MLA Patti McLeod suggested the Liberals work with the YMA to focus on reducing the administrative burden on doctors, noting that Nova Scotia and Manitoba have reported freeing up thousands of hours of doctors’ time to see more patients. The Minister tried to claim this was already happening before capitulating and voting in favour of the Yukon Party’s motion urging action.

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Tim Kucharuk
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