Campaign trail notes: Here's what Yukon's political parties had to say March 24

All three major parties had policy announcements Wednesday ahead of the Yukon territorial election on April 12. Here's a roundup of those promises:

NDP

On the day the party's Watson Lake candidate dropped out of the race over past problematic tweets, NDP Leader Kate White tried to get the focus back on policy, promising to raise Yukon's minimum wage to $15.20 per hour.

White blasted the Liberals' decision to raise the territory's minimum wage this year by 14 cents to $13.85 cents an hour. She accused the government of ignoring a recommendation by the Employment Standards Board to raise the wage by $1.10 to keep up with inflation.

"I'd accuse [the Liberals] of nickel-and-diming people, but they're not even doing that," she said.

White said that by September, Yukon's minimum wage would be just the seventh-highest in Canada.

On Tuesday, the NDP also announced plans to help seniors stay in their homes longer, in part, by having paramedics providing some home care services and by partnering with NGOs and small business to offer services such as snow clearing and yard work.

Liberals

The infrastructure promises from the Liberals may not be new, but there are a lot of them.

On Wednesday, candidates John Streicker and Richard Mostyn, both cabinet ministers in the last government, talked up a list of capital projects, most of which are either already under construction or were contained in the budget introduced — but not passed — earlier this month.

"It's especially important given that we're coming out of COVID and we see it as a way to make sure that the economy is doing well at the same time as investing in the territory," Streicker said.

The list of projects includes numerous community, recreation and public safety buildings across the territory, transit upgrades in Whitehorse and the Dempster fibre optic line project.

All told, the Liberals are promising more than $2.2 billion worth of infrastructure funding over the next five years, with much of the money coming from the federal government.

Yukon Party

Leader Currie Dixon promised Wednesday to reduce red tape for the private sector by promising that a Yukon Party government would remove one regulation for every new one established by the territorial bureaucracy.

"This means the government would have to remove a regulation when a new one increases administrative burden costs on businesses," Dixon said. "This would ensure the government acts thoughtfully and carefully about the need for new regulations on small businesses before implementing."

He said the one-for-one rule would not apply to health and safety regulations.

The Yukon Party also promised help for Yukoners with Type 1 Diabetes. The party pledged to fully fund continuous glucose monitoring devices.

Candidate Scott Kent also said a Yukon Party government would establish a territorial diabetes strategy and a patient advisory committee to offer input on which medical devices should be covered by public health insurance.