Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski arrives for a meeting of provincial premiers in Whitehorse, Yukon, Thursday, July, 21, 2016. Issues facing Yukon voters as they head to the polls Monday in a tight territorial election will sound familiar to every Canadian. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
WHITEHORSE — Issues facing Yukon voters as they head to the polls Monday in a tight territorial election will sound familiar to every Canadian.
Reconciliation with First Nations. Climate change. Expanding a resource-based economy when commodity prices are low and without damaging the environment.
"It's always a teeter-totter between the economy and the environment," said Donna Larsen of Datapath Systems, which has been polling in Yukon for more than a decade.
"We were hearing a lot of words like, 'We need balance.' Balance. Balance. Balance," she said. "That was, historically, a key theme.
"Now, we're seeing the population divide a bit more."
A web-based Datapath poll done between Oct. 15 and 23 of 625 people found the Yukon and Liberal parties in a statistical tie with about one-third each of decided voters. The New Democrats trailed, but not by much. About 10 per cent of the respondents were undecided.
The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
While the Yukon Party has gained strength over the campaign, Larsen suggested the Liberals might still have an edge because of their greater popularity in Whitehorse, which controls 12 of the legislature's 19 seats.
Yukon has about 38,000 people. About two-thirds live in the capital of Whitehorse. The territory's economy has depended on ore extraction, but its one operating mine — the Minto copper mine — is expected to temporarily close next year due to low prices.
Yukon's economy has declined for three straight years, although a slight uptick has been forecast for 2016.
To turn that around, the government needs to support mining, said incumbent Premier Darrell Pasloski of the right-leaning Yukon Party, which has been in power for 14 years.
"We say now, more than ever, we need to stand for the resource industry," he said. "We are the party that has been supportive of the resource industry."
His opponents say Pasloski has gone too far.
Liberal Leader Sandy Silver calls Pasloski's approach antiquated. He accuses the Yukon Party of alienating the territory's aboriginal governments — half of all Canada's self-governing bands are in Yukon — and of ignoring carefully negotiated compromises around development in favour of mining interests.
Pasloski's term has seen two major court challenges over control and regulation of land use. One is to go before the Supreme Court next year.
Liz Hanson, of the New Democrats, said the Yukon Party hasn't shared decision-making with First Nations and ignored advice from its own planning bodies. That's created uncertainty for industry, she said.
"What they've done is taken (away) the basis for certainty and inviting people to explore, and made (Yukon) not a very attractive place to invest."
Peter Johnston, Grand Chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations, is diplomatic but clearly unhappy.
"We want the relationship to change," he said.
Climate change also separates the Yukon Party from its opponents. Pasloski is resolutely opposed to putting a price on carbon. Greenhouse gas emissions should be cut by energy efficiency and renewable generation, he said.
"I won't put an undue hardship on Yukoners when everything we consume comes thousands of kilometres in a truck."
He's confident he'll be able to negotiate a pass for Yukon in Ottawa's plans for a national carbon price.
"Every time that I've been at the table, we have gotten an exemption."
Silver and Hanson would both work with the federal Liberals.
Silver said he'd return money from a carbon levy to Yukoners, compensating businesses that had no alternative but to use fossil fuels. Hanson is promising she would return half the money and invest half in renewable energy.
The clear differences between the parties, in addition to the territory's economic troubles, have resulted in an electorate that's more divided than normal, said Larsen.
"The majority were always right in the middle ... but we are ... seeing it polarized a little bit more in this election."
Environmental issues have always been important to Yukon voters, she said.
"For people who live in the Yukon and love it, the environment is key to that satisfaction. But we all know we can't live there without the economy."
— By Bob Weber in Edmonton. Follow him on Twitter at @row1960
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