WHITEHORSE – Liberal Leader Sandy Silver is calling on the Yukon Party to take responsibility for Yukon’s continuing economic decline.

According to a Statistics Canada report released this morning Yukon’s GDP fell by 1.2% in 2014.

“This is the second year in a row we have seen Yukon’s GDP fall; the previous year we had the worst growth in the country. The Yukon Party loves to take credit when times are good and we’ll see if they are willing to take any responsibility for these latest numbers,” said Silver. “Yukoners will recall the 2014 Yukon Economic Forecast, announced in September 2013, predicted growth of 8.8% for 2014.”

As recently as January of this year, the Yukon Party government had produced an updated forecast predicting 1% in growth for 2014.

“The Stats Canada report shows a steep decrease in resource development and residential building construction,” noted Silver. “This government’s continued court battles with first nations over mineral development are only being further exacerbated by the Premier’s amendments to Bill S-6. With a forecast of more litigation on the horizon, I doubt that a rebound will happen in 2015. The Yukon Party needs to take leadership on our slowing economy, and stop publishing unrealistic economic forecasts.”

Yukon is the only province or territory in the country to have negative growth in both 2013 and 2014.

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For more information call:
Brad Weston, 393-6430

The full Statistic Canada report is available at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/150428/dq150428a-eng.htm