Liberal Leader Sandy Silver blasted Community Services Minister Brad Cathers in the legislature Tuesday for scant progress on the Yukon recycling front.

“It’s very clear that this government is not going to meet its commitment of 50-per-cent waste diversion by 2015 without Raven being completely open,” Silver told the legislature.

The Raven Recycling Society, the only non-profit recycling plant in the Yukon, announced last month it was shutting down its non-refundables drop-off service due to lack of funding.

The closure, effective Oct. 15, has impacted thousands of environmentally conscious Yukoners looking to deposit their mixed plastic and cardboard.

Answering Silver, Cathers would neither reaffirm the target of 50-per-cent waste diversion by 2015 set earlier by the government nor deny that it could be achieved.

“How does starving the largest recycling facility in the territory help the premier meet his commitment of enhancing recycling?” Silver asked in an interview this morning.

“Where’s the leadership on this?”

He pointed to a “180-degree turn” in policy that he said begged a larger question: “Does the Yukon Party no longer support the previous environmental and social principles that led to the original investments into a public good?”

In his rebuttal, Cathers noted that last year, both Raven and P&M Recycling — the territory’s only other recycling facility — jointly approached the government to ask for diversion credits of $75 per tonne for non-refundables.

The government complied, matching the City of Whitehorse for a total $150 per tonne.

Last month, Raven requested that combined diversion credits be more than doubled to $330 per tonne.

“We’ve asked them for more information and ... I asked my deputy minister this morning to remind them that we are still waiting for that information,” Cathers said Tuesday.

“We are continuing to work with the city on identifying sustainable long-term and cost-effective solutions for processing recyclables in the Yukon.”

He noted the government has commissioned a study to examine the matter.

Cathers and Environment Minister Currie Dixon are scheduled to sit down with the mayor and city council Friday to “talk about next steps.”

Silver is skeptical.

“You don’t take away an integral service or public good without an alternative plan or objective. So, what are these?” he asked Cathers Tuesday.

“Or are we witnessing here just a complete absence of forethought on this particular file?”

Silver put forward a motion Tuesday urging the government “to adequately fund Raven Recycling.”

The government’s supplementary budget, unveiled last week, pushed back spending of $841,000 in Building Canada Fund money, earmarked last spring for a territorial recycling program, to next year.

A further $864,000 from the federal purse slated for solid waste management will no longer be put to use in 2014.

Dwayne Muckosky, director of community operations for Community Services, said the department is looking to make arrangements with municipalities on a “system” for recycling.

“We’ve got more work to do to develop a long-term sustainable model for recycling,” he told the Star early this afternoon.

Until two weeks ago, Raven sorted, compacted and shipped to Outside mills high volumes of cardboard, mixed paper and mixed plastics as well as tin, glass, Tetra Paks and Styrofoam.

About 75 per cent of Raven’s materials are non-refundables, “yet we only get half of the cost of processing the non-refundables” from the government, Joy Snyder, Raven’s executive director, told the Star last month.

Neither Raven nor P&M receive base funding.

Cathers has said the government is seeking public consultation on possible changes to the territory’s Beverage Container Regulations (BCR). The revisions would enrich the cash flowing to recycling plants for handling “refundables” like Coke cans or Kokanee bottles.

“(Raven and P&M) would likely see the amount that they receive per recyclable beverage container double ... but the specifics of that are one of the things that we’re seeking public input on,” he stated last month.

Snyder said the plan is not ideal. “The BCR funding is limited and we compete for it.”

Raven, now 22 years old, continues to accept bottles, aluminum cans, scrap metal, computers and other materials “that come with a stable funding source,” the society has said.

An open house on recycling regulations runs from 3 to 8 p.m. today at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre.