IN CONVERSATION Premier Darrell Pasloski

Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski spoke with our editor, Jerald Sabin, in late October about his career in politics, ’s economic success, and his plans for a university in Canada’s North. P h o t o

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G o v e r n m e n t Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski. Jerald Sabin (JS): Thank you for taking the time make a great Leader”. And what I think I bring to to speak with us, Premier. I'd like to start by asking the table — and what helped me to decide — is that what brought you to politics and what motivated you I have always believed to be successful in any organ- to seek elected office? ization [that] you need to have a strong team around you. And the realization that the better people that Premier Pasloski (Premier): It’s my pleasure. you have to work with, the higher quality and the bet- Well, for a number of years I was working in my busi- ter results you can attain. That has been my philoso- ness — I have owned and operated drug stores as a phy in business — I always tried to engage and practicing pharmacist — and of course, I was always ensure you empowered your people to make deci- interested in current affairs and the news. That tran- sions that affect their positions directly. I was told by scended into a bit of volunteerism, mostly at the ter- a lot of people that if I were the Leader, they would ritorial level helping with political organization and be willing to get engaged at a higher level or even doing a bit of door knocking for candidates. I made run. I was able to announce through the leadership the decision back in early 2008 to put my name for- race a number of candidates who would be willing ward to run as a candidate for the Conservative Party to run if I was Leader. I think that really helped with of Canada. I was successful in winning that nomina- that momentum going forward. tion, and I ran as the candidate in the 2008 election. I was unsuccessful — I lost to the incumbent [the JS: Now, your government is a year old — the an- Hon. ] — however, I did increase the niversary was on October 11. Like all sitting govern- popular vote and support for the Conservative Party. ments, yours has received its share of criticism. How On my decompression from almost a year and a would you characterize this past year in office and half of working towards that election, and in the time what do you think are some of your accomplish- going forward from that, I really assessed. I said if I ments to date? want to run politically again, I would look at the ter- ritorial level simply because I felt that I could have Premier: I think that at an organizational level we bigger impact on the day-to-day lives of Yukoners by have done a couple things. One is that for the first getting engaged at the territorial level. So that be- time in Yukon political history I have come out with came my focus. As the years went by, I continued to a mandate letter for the ministers. What I have done be active and go to events and listen to what Yukon- is written a letter to each of the ministers and to their ers were saying. deputies outlining and articulating what their deliv- When we got to 2011, there was a lot of talk erables are during this mandate. That is something about whether the Premier at the time, Dennis Fen- that is new, and that document is a public document. tie, would remain on and seek a third mandate as Anyone can go online and see what is in that man- leader of the . I put my name forward date letter. They are primarily a breakdown of our for leadership. There were three people who ran for platform from the 2011 election by department and leadership. In late May of 2011, I became the Leader say these are the things we committed to Yukoners on the first ballot with about 67 per cent of the votes. that we were going to do. That was a big step in We increased the membership at that time from terms of transparency and accountability. about 300 members to about 1,500-1,600 members We have also made a lot of positive gains in a by election day for leadership. number of areas. The biggest one is probably the That momentum carried over and continued on work that we've done towards housing and land avail- through the summer with the nomination of candi- ability in Yukon. With some tremendous growth over dates to run in specific ridings. By the time we came the last few years, we've gotten into a position that to the general election, we had 3,000 members of the you see with quick growth that is accessibility to hous- Yukon Party. And we were successful in a third suc- ing, accessibility to land. What we see now is that cessive mandate from Yukon people. We won eleven there are now lots at the counter. You can walk up of nineteen seats, and we missed the twelfth one by and actually purchase a lot. That has not been pos- three votes. sible now for quite some time. We've seen stabiliza- And maybe I’ll just step into the next question tion, and actually a slight decline, in housing prices. you are probably going to ask me: “Well, why did you We are starting to see an increase in the [rental] va- decide to run as Leader versus just as a regular cancy rate, which I think will put some downward MLA?” Really, it was the people. It was the people pressure on what it costs to get rentals. who had approached me starting back in 2008 and We continue to work on reviewing our housing said, “you should run territorially and you would stock that we have in terms of our social program-

Northern Public Affairs, Fall 2012 21 ming. We are working with the Salvation Army to feds like to call devolution. I like to call it evolution. look at the lower end of the housing spectrum — and We are now responsible for the management of our that is emergency shelters, transitional housing. We land, resources, and water. That happened back in just announced a new youth shelter for , 2003. Along with that came a piece of legislation which was one of our platform commitments. So, I called the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assess- think that the work that we’ve done on the housing ment Act. It is a one project, one assessment process. spectrum has been significant and it’s certainly one It is being talked about in the rest of the country be- of the biggest issues we had going forward from the cause of the duplication that we see between provin- election. cial assessments, especially on large projects. So, we have a process right now that is very stable and very JS: I’d like to ask you now about a few key areas of transparent. From an investment perspective, it also interest to our readers — things that we’ve heard puts a timeline so that you know how long it will take about and are following in the news. In September, to get through these processes. So, what Canada is you visited China with the Forum of the Federation. striving for is what we have had in Yukon for the last How do you see Yukon’s relationship with China, or ten years. more broadly in the global economy? How does that fit in with your government’s plans for economic de- JS: A related issue that was certainly heard during velopment in the territory? the last session of the legislature is development in the Peel Watershed. Where do things stand with your Premier: Well, we’ve been going to China since government on its development and/or protection? 2005, and specifically to the China Mining Expo that occurs every fall. It’s through some of that work that Premier: Our conversation is timely, as I just an- we’ve been able to attract some considerable direct nounced that I would be moving forward with the foreign investment from China in the Yukon for a final phase of consultation on the Peel Watershed Re- number of projects. gional Land Use Plan. In mid-September, we en- I want to stress, however, that it is not only gaged First Nations to look at what we were going to China. I think when you have a market — when you be bringing forward. We’re now starting a four- have a territory that is a resource based economy — month public consultation phase, which will be fol- if we’re looking for direct foreign investment, we lowed by an additional month of consultation with need to be able to look not only in the traditional First Nations. That will take us to about mid-March. areas that we have (Europe, the United States), but At that time, the Government will then assess all the we need to be looking at economies that are growing input and make a final decision on the land use plan and strong. Certainly, the Asian market is one of for the Peel Region. those areas, but I would also include South Korea What we said during the election was that this and India as areas that will be important. had become a highly polarized and politicized issue, We have a lot of things that are in our favour in and what it was doing was pitting one industry terms of infrastructure and accessibility to the Asian against another. It was picking winners and losers. market. We have a port that we use that is two days What we said was that the plan needed more balance sailing closer to Asia than the traditional ports. It is to it. We need to be coming up with a manner in in Skagway, Alaska and it is an ice-free port twelve which we can protect the environment, but also re- months a year. We also have a lot of certainty around spect all sectors of the economy. our processes in terms of legislation, regulation, and We hope to engage all Yukoners — the slogan is permitting processes... “we want to hear from you” — so, we’re excited to finally be able to move forward on this. We hope to JS: Speaking of that, Premier, the federal govern- wrap this all up about the time our moratorium on ment has announced pretty significant changes to en- staking will finish and that is in May of next year. vironmental reviews, how they are conducted, and how resource projects are approved. Do you see that JS: The Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition released a re- as an opportunity for Yukon, or as a challenge? port recently that highlighted a couple of things that had been going on in Whitehorse, including a four- Premier: We have a process in Yukon that has been fold increase in the use of the Food Bank and the Sal- the gold standard. I guess this a chance for us to jump vation Army is apparently serving 3,500 more meals up and down and wave our flag. Yukon is the only a month than they did a year ago. What do you see territory, I’m sure you’re aware, that has what the as the state of poverty in Yukon and how does your

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o t o h P Premier Pasloski underground at Yukon Zinc Corporation’s Wolverine Mine, July 9, 2012. government plan to tackle it? two territories at this point. The College has started doing its due diligence to look at possible models that Premier: I would start off by saying that this not a we could use. problem for the government alone to solve. I think One of the things that we have been talking that every citizen and every community must share about is creating a centre for Northern innovation in in this responsibility. But from the government’s per- mining. That could be one of the founding blocks of spective, what we are doing is developing a social in- the creation of the university. I believe that again clusion and a poverty reduction strategy. The strategy speaks to economic diversification within the terri- aims to improve access to government programs and tory to ensure that when we are firing on all cylinders services targeted at vulnerable populations — really that there’s the ability to create an economy from trying to reduce inequities by providing the skills and many different sectors and reduce our reliance on the support that people need and strengthening Yukon resource-based economy. communities. We have a real opportunity to look at program- We have made significant progress in a lot of ming along the state of self-governance for First Na- areas, really through targeted initiatives: increasing tions as more than half of these Modern Treaties are and indexing the minimum wage rate; the addition here in Yukon. We have eleven self-governing First of more social housing and supportive housing op- Nations, so we really have a partnership with First tions; and by providing mental health programs. We Nations. Where could there be a better place than certainly support a wide variety of NGOs, that in the Yukon to be able to have academic excellence turn support all of the vulnerable citizens that we and be able to have people not only come from have. I think there are a lot of things that we have around this country but also other parts of the world done, this is a problem that is not unique to White- to study self-governance? I think that could be an- horse or Yukon. I think that every country, every city other pillar that we could have towards the evolution has these challenges and I think that we’re moving of a university here North of 60. forward in a very constructive way with some great We’re at that point where we are ready to take initiatives. that next step. As a strong believer in education and life-long learning, I also from my Premier’s hat see JS: Do you see any other new initiatives on the hori- the benefits economically of having a bricks and zon? mortar institution and having academics here. As you are aware, many times graduates don’t stray very far Premier: We have had Yukon College here for from the university they attended, so I think there is many, many years. One of our commitments we a bit of selfish reasoning there to ensure that we con- made in our platform during the election was that tinue to grow our population as well, which is a ben- we’d like to see the College move to university status. efit for all of us. We feel that as a territory we’ve moved along that evolutionary ladder quite a bit further than the other JS: Thank you for your time, Premier.◉ Northern Public Affairs, Fall 2012 23