Hospital report shows Yukon Liberals are out of touch

WHITEHORSE, YT — A damning report released after the Fall legislative sitting shows the Yukon Liberals’ chronic underfunding of healthcare has led to gross fiscal mismanagement by the Yukon Hospital Corporation (YHC).

While insisting healthcare was fine, the Liberals’ used their Fall budget to pay for their real priorities – a $21 million dollar ore dock in Alaska and $1 million for landlords.

The long-awaited report by the consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY), withheld from publication until after the closure of the Fall legislative session, found that the YHC spent $7.3 million meant for the sorely needed Mental Wellness Unit in Whitehorse to meet payroll.

The Yukon Liberals knew they had underfunded Yukon hospitals before YHC knowingly misused the $7.3 million in question, according to the report.

“Yukon hospitals are cutting surgeries, mammograms, CT scans and more, because the Liberals underfunded health care to the point where the YHC misappropriated millions for a mental health facility to meet their payroll,” Kate White, Yukon NDP leader and MLA for Takhini-Kopper King, said Wednesday, Dec. 6.

The report meanwhile ties YHC’s clear lack of planning to “a system where there is no understanding of the impact that changes in funding have on the health care system.”

In a prepared statement released shortly before the report, the Liberals touted their own healthcare record, including and especially their working relationship with YHC.

This isn’t the health system Yukoners experience, White said.

“Yukoners are waiting years for critical surgeries like hip replacements. They’re showing up at emergency rooms for prescription refills, and they can’t get mammograms or CT-scans on-time.”

“And the Liberals carved $21 million out of their Fall budget for an ore dock in Skagway and another million for landlord subsidies, while telling Yukoners that their government has health care under control,” White continued.

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