Yukon premier accused of meddling in Peel watershed planning work

Two of the Yukon's major environmental groups called on Premier Dennis Fentie to stop interfering in the work of the Peel Watershed Planning Commission, after key sections of a government submission to the commission were gutted earlier this year.

The sections were cut from the territorial Environment Department's assessment of what's needed to protect the Peel River watershed in central Yukon. The commission is preparing a land-use plan on how development should be managed in the pristine region.

Critics and opposition politicians point to email correspondence between senior government officials that said a detailed technical report was dropped from the government's submission after Fentie made an "irate" phone call about it to deputy environment minister Kelvin Leary.

"First Nations and the Yukon public have clearly said that they support major protection in the Peel," Karen Baltgailis, executive director of the Yukon Conservation Society, told CBC News on Tuesday.

"The technical submission by the Yukon government's Environment Department that the premier axed clearly indicates from a technical point of view that protecting this unique area is very important."

Fentie denied the Environment Department's submission was changed because of his intervention. He added that as premier, he has the right to call any deputy minister that he wishes, since it's part of his job.

"You're missing the point," Fentie told CBC News on Tuesday afternoon.

"Deputy ministers in this democratic process here in the Yukon have been in the past, are today and will continue to be in the future, unless somebody decides to change democracy serve at the pleasure of the premier's office."

Reduced to 4 pages

Peel commission members said they became suspicious when the department's submission, prepared in early March, reached the commission as a four-page document of general statements. They say they want to see the original submission.

"If there's originally 22 pages of technical advice, and at the end of the day we get four pages, we know there's been a lot of substance lost," commission member David Loeks said.

"We would really prefer to see all that material ourselves and we can weigh and evaluate it ourselves."

Also backing the commission's request for the department's original analysis is the Yukon chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, which says the government's technical information is crucial to the commission's work.

"The problem is that the planning commission doesn't have much in the way of resources of its own, so it has to depend on government departments for its information," said Mike Dehn, the society's Yukon director.

"This kind of technical information just should not be censored through a political filter."

Two months after the alleged phone call took place, Fentie told the legislative assembly there had been no political interference in the Peel Watershed Planning Commission's work.

"Absolutely, he has interfered in this process, and you know what's getting really tiring, is that Mr. Fentie refuses to recognize his own actions," NDP leader Todd Hardy said Monday.

Hardy added that Environment Minister Elaine Taylor needs to step up and take back control of her department from the premier.

The Tourism Industry Association of the Yukon says it's also dismayed by the revelations about Fentie's actions. Chairman Rod Taylor said Fentie is showing an "apparent dishonesty" and a blatant disregard for the integrity of the land-use planning process.