When Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell said the government used its majority to railroad the Child and Youth Advocate Act through the legislature during the spring sitting, he was rebuked by the House Speaker Ted Staffen.

"When there are more members on the government side than on the opposition side - that is democracy. So the term "railroading" in reference to democracy is not appropriate."

It was not the first time Staffen attempted to tone down contentious debate during the 32-day session that wrapped yesterday, and the way things ended, it will not be the last.

"Although the chair hates to interject at the eleventh hour, so to speak ... accusing an individual member of having a lack of compassion would be against our standing orders," Staffen warned Kluane MLA Gary McRobb.

During every question period this week, McRobb charged Jim Kenyon - minister responsible for the Yukon Housing Corporation - with failing Yukoners who hoped for a share of $7 million in mortgage funds in this year's budget.

According to the housing corporation and Kenyon, the program for this year is already "over subscribed".

"People feel let down because they believed in this government's word there would be sufficient funding for their applications," McRobb said during his final salvo yesterday. "People are being forced to lose their $20,000 down payment ... what, if anything, does this minister plan to do with respect to these distraught citizens?"

And over the course of several days of debate on the matter, Kenyon sent mixed messages and was unwilling to clarify his remarks in the house, nor to the media.

On several occasions, the Housing minister said the government was not in the mortgage business, despite the fact it has provided more than $30 million worth since the early 1990s.

After proceedings finished for the season, Mitchell had nothing but scorn for Premier Dennis Fentie and his government.

"We've never seen in my history in the Yukon, a government that's been this completely unwilling to work with opposition parties, or to listen to ideas," said Mitchell. "I would characterize it as a very sad example of a government that reacts to any accountability and any questioning by the official Opposition or the third party, whose role in there is to stand up for Yukoners and say, 'This doesn't seem right, why are you doing it this way?' by simply saying, we're criticizing officials.

"How ridiculous and how arrogant and it really makes the worst possible case for majority governments."

But a majority government is what Mitchell and his opposition Liberals have to work with until the next territorial election in 2011.

As for how much work was accomplished during the spring sitting; Fentie and his government can boast nine new or amended laws and three money bills, including the record $1-billion budget. Meanwhile, the opposition parties point to a litany of unanswered questions.

The sum of more than a month's worth of debate included repeated hounding by the Liberals for the government's botched $36.3 million asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) investment and the failing grade Auditor General Sheila Fraser bestowed on the Education department for its dismal graduation rates.

But the government claimed the ABCP was stable and earning interest (albeit over nine years instead of four weeks) and Education officials were working to correct 60-per-cent failure rates among aboriginal students. To this, Liberals demanded the government come clean on the ABCP's real value and that Education Minister Patrick Rouble resign.

The government declined on both counts.

New legislation like the Corrections Act and amendments to the territory's human rights law offered a few instances where politicians of all stripes found common ground. But the brief harmony was short-lived when debate began on the Child and Family Advocate Act.

Despite calls from both opposition parties that the advocate be given a wider mandate, at the end of April the government used its majority to overrule any changes.

During final debate on the bill, Mitchell's motion to allow the advocate to initiate investigations was voted down.

While the Liberals continued their offensive by challenging the government's contracting policy, the New Democrats tried to keep the government accountable on range of social issues.

But the NDP failed to get answers on several fronts: toxic emission levels from garbage burning at the territory's dumps, alleged meddling in the Peel River Watershed planning commission and whether the new health care fees and increases to those already in place would be introduced.

Outgoing NDP Leader Todd Hardy, who marked his last day in the legislature by presenting a rose to political colleagues, media members and other administration staff, said he had little faith in Fentie or the Opposition Liberals.

"I see the Yukon Party behaving just the way the Liberal's are behaving so if you just switched positions for them they would behave in exactly the same way," Hardy said. "One wouldn't answer questions and the other would just throw insults ... what you do in opposition is how you would behave in government. If you can't present a different way in opposition, why should anybody believe you'd be different if you got elected?"

Yesterday morning, the premier opened his office to the media to offer his assessment.

"Regardless of the misinformed issues that the opposition continues to bring forward we stick to our plan and have demonstrated that since coming into office in 2002," said Fentie.

When asked if the billion-dollar budget lent itself to freewheeling spending - like the unfinished $5-million (to date) hospital in Watson Lake that could need an additional $25 million to complete and another hospital promised for Dawson City - the premier bristled.

"We've built up fiscal capacity over the last number of years, through our fiscal management, through our checks and balances that have allowed us this flexibility to invest the kind of money we're investing today," he said.

But ramping up health care infrastructure seems at odds with last year's health care review which concluded current spending trends for providing such services were unsustainable.

"The fact of the matter is we need to do what we're doing in Watson Lake and Dawson City, or do it all here in Whitehorse," said Fentie. "Why should we transfer that investment here to Whitehorse when we can put that investment on the ground in the community itself?"

When pressed on new health fees, the premier said the government would not pursue that avenue.

"On the record, the government has clearly articulated that we have no intention of raising fees and taxes (for health care)," Fentie said.

While Hardy said he didn't know whether to believe the premier, Mitchell offered this warning:

"There's been a lot of broken promises and I would suggest to Yukoners that they should think long and hard before believing Dennis Fentie on this one," he said.

Looking beyond the veracity of statements made by our territorial politicians, independent MLA John Edzerza's persistence in trying to move a bus stop to accommodate seniors living near Yukon College offers a glimpse into the unbelievable.

For three sittings - last summer's, last fall's and now this spring's - the McIntyre-Takhini MLA has been unsuccessful.

First the government passed the responsibility to the city, which passed it back to the government. The following response, offered by Rouble, provides a window into the Kafka-esque world of bureaucracy.

"I can tell (Edzerza) that a variety of government departments, including Education, Community Services and the Yukon Housing Corporation, are all very concerned about (moving the bus stop) and we will continue to work with the City of Whitehorse, the Whitehorse Transit Authority and others who play a role in this issue."