Test of confidence: Passing budget high on the list for Liberal minority gov't, premier says

The last legislative assembly ended on a cliffhanger: the budget, while tabled, hadn't been passed, let alone subject to fulsome debate.

The territory has been without a budget since that truncated session. But that's due to change and fast, Premier Sandy Silver told CBC News.

The assembly is back in session Tuesday at 1 p.m., and top of the priority list is getting that budget passed, he said.

With no clear winner after the territorial election, the Liberals and NDP struck an alliance. Part of that arrangement, called a "confidence and supply agreement," means the Liberal minority government will get a needed boost to pass its budget and confidence bills.

Silver said the budget will be revised.

"There [are]going to be a few extra considerations here and there for the agreement, but for the most part it's very similar to the budget that we tabled in March," he said. "I'm really excited to get into the legislative assembly and get the spending authority for the year."

"Yukoners have sent a clear message that we need to work together to the benefit of the territory and I hope to see that reflected in the House," Silver added.

"We all need to demonstrate leadership that Yukoners expect from their elected representatives."

Budget to reflect several NDP objectives

The agreement includes several commitments copy and pasted from the NDP's campaign platform. They include rolling out a safe drug supply program within six months and introducing a rent cap.

Another item, aspirational at this point, involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent. The Liberals' climate change plan, called Our Clean Future, set an emissions reduction target of 30 per cent by 2030.

"We need a plan to how we'll get there and how they will work," NDP Leader Kate White said, referring to themore aggressive reduction target.

"We're really looking forward to some of the important measures that were negotiated in the confidence and supply agreement being implemented in this budget."

White said the alliance between parties doesn't suggest the NDP will get soft on the Liberals quite the opposite, she added.

"It doesn't change our ability to talk about things that are important to us."

A dearth of housing, now an evergreen problem in most places in Yukon, is one issue the NDP will be pressing the Liberals on, White said.

'A lot of questions,' Yukon Party leader says

Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon said he wants to see how the Liberal-NDP alliance will work in practice.

"The Liberal-NDP coalition agreement is fairly comprehensive," he said. "There's a lot in that agreement and we have a lot of questions for what it's going to mean for public policy for the Yukon government for the coming years."

The agreement is going to meannew ways of doing business in the assembly, Dixon said.

"There's these new joint policy implementation committees, which will allow a combination of cabinet ministers with NDP MLAs to give direction directly to public servants, to departments, so we're curious to understand how that's going to work and how those processes are going to unfold," Dixon said.

"I think understanding how that direction is going to be given, who's going to receive it and how it's going to be implemented is a huge issue that we're going to be digging into."

According to Dixon, this alliance could drain resources.

"That's going to create an issue from a public finance perspective," he said.

"On top of that we know there are also significant implications due to the delay in having the budget in place as a result of the unnecessary election call that the Liberals did a few weeks ago."