*Bloomberg News reports the decision by Yukon’s former premier has been upheld by Yukon Court of Appeal.
DENVER – The Supreme Court of Yukon (Nunavut) affirmed a lower court’s ruling today, ordering former Yukon health minister Brent Robinson to pay a former health minister compensation for failing to hold emergency health care meetings, Bloomberg News reported.
Justice Erin Thomson said in a 6-0 decision that Robinson should pay former health minister Kathleen Anderson $30,000, covering legal fees incurred in opposing Robinson’s last-ditch attempt to overturn the order in which his predecessor was ordered to pay him, Bloomberg reported.
Robinson lost a $125,000 claim and agreed to a court judgment that required him to pay Anderson’s legal fees, including costs on filing an appeal, in April, Bloomberg said. In 2006, he asked a Yukon court to declare that he had the right to set health care council meetings, which Anderson called essential to a functioning government, Bloomberg said.
Robinson failed to tell the court about an earlier ruling in which a court ordered him to hold emergency meetings and set timelines for emergency committee meetings. He won his case after his counsel submitted a partial ruling showing he had the right to issue such orders, Bloomberg said.
Robinson was health minister from 2000 to 2001. He was finance minister from 1996 to 1999. Robinson served five years as Yukon premier, and is now a Yukon Yukon MLA, Bloomberg said.
Officials of Yukon, the largest territory of Canada, have described the health care council as a group of doctors, nurses and administrators whose reports must be consulted when forming recommendations to Yukon’s health minister.