Method of restocking board stirs criticism

The Yukon Party government is ramming through four nominees to fill vacancies on the Yukon Development Corp. board, say opposition MLAs.

The Yukon Party government is ramming through four nominees to fill vacancies on the Yukon Development Corp. board, say opposition MLAs.

Last June, the eight-person board lost half its membership after chair Willard Phelps and directors Greg Hakonson, Paul Hunter and Martin Allen resigned to protest Premier Dennis Fentie’s attempts to privatize the Yukon Energy Corp., which is under the authority of the development corporation.

At the meeting of the legislature’s all-party oversight committee on major board appointments Monday, four names were put forward to plug the gaps.

While nobody will comment on who has been nominated, including the premier, pending cabinet approval, opposition MLAs rushed to criticize the process.

“I’m not questioning the qualifications of the four individuals; I think the process requires more transparency is what it boils down to,” said NDP committee member Steve Cardiff, who declined to say who the individuals are.

Liberal counterpart Don Iverarity was also mum on the appointees’ identities, but more forthcoming with his critique of the process.

“The issue is not about who the four candidates are; the issue is the government having control over the committees,” said Inverarity. “They go out and say, ‘Here’s four names,’ and they expect us to rubber stamp it.”

Opposition parties sang a different tune when Fentie promoted his friend and YDC director Pat Irvin to board chair last June.

“When Mr. Irvin speaks, it’s like Mr. Fentie speaking,” Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell said after Irvin was vaulted to the development corporation’s helm in the wake of the mass resignation led by Phelps.

But today it was all about the selection process to the board for the opposition, not the personalities involved.

“I have a hard time endorsing them,” said Cardiff about the mystery-four.

“I would feel a lot better if it wasn’t just by invitation only, which this seems to be, and there was some sort of advertisement or solicitation via different groups and agencies.”

Often when the government seeks to fill vacant positions on major boards, it will advertise for interested individuals although this process is not policy.

With so much media attention on the energy corporation, said Inverarity, he expected a more thorough and judicious selection of YDC directors.

“You would think they would want this to be transparent, that they would’ve gone to labour (groups) and the chamber of commerce (for nominees),” said Inverarity.

“The government used its majority on the board to deny (any selection process), and that’s the issue.”

Yukon Party backbencher Steve Nordick, cabinet minister Elaine Taylor, John Edzerza, the recent returnee to the Yukon Party, and former Yukon Party cabinet minister Brad Cathers round out the appointments committee.