The Yukon Conservation Society (YCS) is asking the territorial government to postpone the spring 2013 oil and gas disposition process until it has conducted its promised public consultation.

The disposition is currently in the public review stage for two requests for oil and gas rights, both in the Eagle Plain basin. The public review is set to close Thursday.

During the fall 2012 legislative sitting, the government committed to a full and rigorous scientific review of any proposed oil and gas project and a territory-wide consultation on hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

But the government seems to have signaled an intent to allow fracking, prior to even initiating a public dialogue, Karen Baltgailis, the executive director of the YCS, said today.

"Basically in this (2013-14 fiscal year) budget, before the Yukon government has done the Yukon-wide consultations that they promised in the last legislative sitting, they now seem to be saying that they want to move ahead with fracking,” she said.

"I think a lot of people are going to be disturbed when they realize that this is the direction that is being promoted in the budget speech.

"This talk about shale gas development in the Yukon is premature before there's been full consultation on the water strategy as well.”

Liz Hanson, the leader of the official NDP Opposition, shares the conservation society's concern.

"They've demonstrated more explicitly the direction that they intend to go,” she said today, both where it concerns oil and gas development and the Peel watershed.

Hanson argued the government should be focusing on renewable energy, noting that there's an abundant supply of natural gas on the North American market already.

Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Brad Cathers could not be reached for comment before deadline this afternoon.

Matthew Grant, the director of cabinet communications, said the government "wouldn't want to presuppose the outcomes of the consultation,” and reiterated its intention to follow through with the commitments outlined in its motion last fall.

Premier Darrell Pasloski devoted a significant portion of his budget address last Thursday to the territory's oil and gas industry, noting that oil and gas development "looks promising.”

He highlighted Apache Resources' reported discovery of one of the largest shale gas deposits in the world, which straddles the Yukon, B.C. border, and the interest in oil and gas resources in both northern and southeastern Yukon.

"To be clear, shale gas development means hydraulic fracturing,” Baltgailis noted this morning.

Pasloski continued on to underscore the territory's medium-term goal to develop Yukon natural gas resources, including work on draft regulations to oversea gas processing plants in the territory.

He did note that his "government is also committed to engaging Yukoners in public dialogue regarding the potential development of the shale gas industry in northern Yukon in conjunction with the Vuntut Gwitchin government and in southeast Yukon in conjunction with the Liard First Nation.”

The YCS has been trying to work co-operatively with the government as well as industry, Baltgailis said.

But between the premier's attack on the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's Yukon chapter in his budget address and a signaled intent to move forward with oil and gas development prior to consultation, Baltgailis has been left concerned about future partnerships.

"I can't help questioning how well we're going to be able to work co-operatively with a government that is clearly on the attack,” she said.

Baltgailis also raised concerns that the government's economic focus is too narrow.

"To try and limit the economic development in the Yukon to resource extraction industries which we know are boom and bust ... to not take into account and preserve the type of wilderness that the tourism industry needs in the Yukon would be shortsighted,” she said.

"Even Alberta, which has always been seen as the rich oil province, is having trouble with their budget.

"Ironically, the royalties from mining over the last year or so were less than the income from campground permits in the Yukon,” Baltgailis added.

She did, however, qualify that she understands the mining industry contributes to the economy in more ways than royalties, including jobs and tax revenue.

The YCS isn't full-stop anti-mining, she said. The group simply wants to ensure it's done in a sustainable way.

See commentary on budget, letter.