Kate White Pledges To Make Healthcare Better As Premier By Listening To Frontline Workers
September 28, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 26, 2025
Territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council, Whitehorse, Yukon – Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with healthcare workers in front of Whitehorse General Hospital, Yukon NDP Leader Kate White announced her commitment that a Yukon NDP government will listen to healthcare workers.
“People on the front lines and at Yukoners’ bedsides have the solutions. They have been sounding the alarm for years, and as Premier – I’ll listen,” said White, as she announced her commitment to hold healthcare worker town halls across the Yukon within her first year as Premier.
White underlined the important choice that voters will have in this election between the Yukon NDP, and parties who’ve only made the crisis worse.
Healthcare workers have repeatedly called out the Liberals’ refusal to listen. Last year, unions representing Yukon healthcare workers quit the Liberal government’s Health and Human Resources Steering Committee, citing healthcare workers’ interests were not being considered.
Under the Conservative Yukon Party, Yukon nurses and top doctors publicly sounded the alarm, calling healthcare a crisis. The then Minister Brad Cathers dismissed these calls for help, stating he would only listen to issues brought to him by the Yukon Hospital CEO and its board.
“The best way to make healthcare better is by listening to the people who deliver care,” White added. “We will give frontline workers the respect you deserve, and we’ll work together on your solutions. That’s my commitment to you as Premier.”
White was introduced by Tiara Topps, a licensed practical nurse (LPN) and the Yukon NDP candidate for Whistle Bend North. Topps has worked as a nurse in long-term care and the Yukon Home Care Program. She was also a leading voice in the call to end the Liberal government’s unfair treatment of Yukon nurses.
“As a nurse, I know that healthcare workers have creative solutions,” said Topps. “We’re creative problem solvers – we just need a government who’ll listen. I’m running with the Yukon NDP because when healthcare workers like me needed help, it was Kate White who showed up. Yukoners can count on an NDP government, and on Premier Kate to make healthcare better.”
White was joined by ER nurse Mariah Witham, an RN, and Taylor Roch, an LPN who works on the medical-surgical unit at Whitehorse General Hospital. Roch spoke in support of White’s commitment to healthcare workers.
“As a nurse, I’m supporting Kate White and the Yukon NDP, because I know they are the only party healthcare workers can count on,” said Roch. “Kate has always shown up for Yukon’s healthcare workers, including nurses like me. By electing her team, healthcare workers will finally have a government we can count on and together, we’ll be able to provide better care to Yukoners.”
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