2025 Federal Election Questionnaire
This election, Canadians will head to the polls with many different priorities for the next four years. Most Yukoners believe that the environment and climate change should be one of those priorities for the federal government.
We asked each candidate four questions to highlight their vision around conservation and climate change.
In the Yukon riding, candidates for Member of Parliament are Dr. Brendan Hanley (Liberal Party), Ryan Leef (Conservative Party), Katherine McCallum (New Democratic Party), and Gabrielle Dupont (Green Party). The candidate with the most votes in the riding will become Yukon’s MP. The party that wins the most ridings across Canada (out of 343 total) will form the next federal government.
You can read each candidate’s answers below.
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The Yukon is rich in the critical minerals needed for the clean energy transition – but with opportunity comes responsibility. Yukoners have seen the impacts of failed projects in our territory. This is why I have worked with federal colleagues to push for a review and strengthening of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Act (YESAA). We need a collaborative approach to mine approval, oversights, and reclamation that ensures companies, not communities, bear the costs.
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We support the Yukon Environmental Socio-Economic Assessment Board—a made-in-Yukon process that ensures project assessments respect local authority. Yukon and Yukon First Nations can benefit from resource development while protecting the Territory’s pristine wilderness. We’re committed to improving development that creates jobs and growth, while empowering Yukoners to pursue economic opportunity and safeguard their environmental heritage.
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The federal government has an important role to play in regulating water and fish habitat and that must be maintained and strengthened. Other parties are promising fast tracking of projects which is the opposite of what we need. We need sustained federal support for Indigenous-led monitoring and decision-making so Yukon communities aren’t left holding the bill when mines walk away. The remediation cost of every failed mine is stolen from the health and education budget of the Yukon government.
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As a Yukon business owner impacted by the Eagle mine disaster, this issue resonates strongly with me. Such devastating environmental degradation shows that we can’t hold economic considerations above environmental ones.
The extraction of minerals is crucial for a green economy. Still, we must hold polluters accountable. The Green Party is committed to co-developing federal legislation with First Nations to ensure strong environmental protection and rehabilitation.
Want to read more? CPAWS National posed environmental questions to each party leader.