In 2004, then Justice minister Elaine Taylor authorized a three-year contract to provide court transcribing services to a joint venture between Whitehorse's Mega Reporting Inc. and Ottawa's International Reporting Inc.

A letter dated Feb. 13, 2004 confirms the provision and is addressed to both organizations.

Yet somehow, when the contract was issued in March 2004, Joyce Bachli and her Whitehorse business were not included.

'It was never awarded to me in essence. It was only awarded to the Ottawa company,' Bachli told reporters Tuesday. 'This is about the wrongful awarding, or not awarding, of a contract to the local person.'

Bachli said she planned to use the $980,000 contract to expand her business and to prepare for her retirement.

When International and Mega submitted the proposal for the contract, it was a joint venture and Bachli's business was to be an equal partner, she said.

'This problem that I had is that they did not award the contract as per the proposal.'

Bachli has been providing court reporting services in the Yukon for almost 17 years. With her local experience and International's expertise in digital court recording technology, a joint bid seemed like a good fit, she said.

But after investing $15,000 into new digital equipment and a trip to Ottawa for training, Bachli never had the chance to sign the contract that was supposed to include both companies' names.

Neither the letter of provision sent out by Taylor nor the actual contract were ever sent to Bachli.

She added she didn't even find out she had been pushed out of the agreement until after she began work on it.

'This Yukon business person was locked out of this contract,' said Liberal MLA Don Inverarity, who brought Bachli's concerns before the legislature on Tuesday.

'Since then, this Yukoner has been forced to endure years of financial hardship, legal costs, cleaning up the mess made by this government's incompetence. Three years have gone by and she still has not received an explanation from the government as to why she was squeezed out of this contract.'

Bachli said she has been trying for years to get some explanation from the government as to how she lost her 50 per cent share in the contract.

She has spoken with the territory's contracting authority and requested a formal hearing about it.

She said she also brought her concerns, and documentation on the issue, to a barbecue hosted by the Yukon Party last fall.

Bachli said she spoke with ministers Archie Lang, Jim Kenyon and Brad Cathers on the issue.

They said they couldn't believe something like it would happen in the territory and that they would look into it, she said.

None of the ministers responded to requests to comment on the issue.

However, cabinet spokesperson Albert Petersen told the Star the Yukon Party MLAs said they don't recall having ever seen or spoken to Bachli.

'When she wasn't blown off by ministers that ignored her request, she was given the royal run-around and then led to the nearest exit,' said Inverarity.

The stress of the whole experience has been about the 'worst thing that's ever happened' to her, said Bachli.

'Now the denial of it is even worse, because people keep saying, We didn't do anything wrong.' They keep trying to cover their tracks. In essence what they're saying is, Sue us.''

Bachli has already taken International Reporting to court regarding the contract.

That civil action resulted in a consent order, where International agreed to pay $20,000 for outstanding invoices and interest; $97,500 for general damages; $10,000 for the costs of the proceedings; and $15,000 for the new equipment Mega bought from International.

The Ottawa-based company also wrote a letter stating Bachli consistently met deadlines in preparing transcripts from court and she and other Mega representatives worked in a professional manner.

Bachli still has $43,000 in outstanding legal costs from the case.

'Because YTG was really pivotally responsible for not awarding it properly, I want them to show that they respect that by paying for my legal costs,' she said.

Bachli hasn't decided yet if she will take the government to court on the matter. She said she was waiting to see how it responded to her concerns after they were highlighted in the legislative assembly.

Justice Minister Marian Horne declined to comment on the issue outside of the legislature.

Horne told the house the matter was 'new' to her and she would have to look into it.

Justice Department spokesperson Chris Beacom said the wording in the 2004 letter signed by Taylor that states 'the joint venture between International Reporting Inc. and Mega Reporting Inc. has been awarded a three-year contract to provide digital court recording services to the Yukon courts' is wrong.

'There was no legal joint venture,' said Beacom.

All the contract regulations and directives were followed in awarding the contract, he said.

Despite the letter being addressed to Bachli, Beacom said, he didn't know who the letter was actually sent out to in the end nor why Bachli felt there was a joint venture agreement between Mega and International.

'If she has a concern about how the government awarded the contract, she should take her claim to the courts where the courts will decide the matter,' he said.