Whitehorse:  Premier Pasloski should ask for the resignation of Minister Brad Cathers over his mishandling of the affordable housing file, says Liberal Leader Sandy Silver.  With his first question of the fall sitting Silver called on the Premier to remove Cathers from the Yukon Housing portfolio.

“Affordable housing remains a problem in this territory and the Minister has demonstrated he can’t get the job done,” said Silver. “When is the Premier going to remove this Minister?”

Silver noted it has been more than three years since this government took office and the entire time it has been sitting on millions of dollars in affordable housing money it received from Ottawa.

“The minister responsible for this funding has had plenty of time to find a way to spend this money and address an obvious need in our territory.  He has failed to do so.  This summer a plan the government had been touting for some time was scrapped at the last minute,” said Silver.  “How long does the Premier intend to allow the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to fumble around on this file before replacing him?”

One of the central questions of the now cancelled affordable housing process was who decided whether the money would be spent.

“The Minister assured all Yukoners that it would be the board of the housing corporation, free from political interference, making the call. Unfortunately that is not what happened.  In the end, a political decision was made by the government and the input of the arms-length board was overruled,” said Silver. “Since the cancellation the Minister responsible has come out with a number of different versions of what happened and in Faro he threw his colleagues under the bus while trying to duck responsibility for this decision.”

Silver says he does not take the decision to call for a resignation lightly.

“In three years in the Legislature I’ve never done this before,” he said.  “Unfortunately there is no other way forward as most stakeholders and many in the business community have lost confidence in the current Minister.”   

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For additional information contact:

Jason Cunning 667-8942