Continuing opposition to the Yukon Queen II tour boat and a disastrous season of washouts on the Taylor and Top of World highways last summer have prompted Westmark Hotels to put one of its local properties on the market.

The Holland America Line-owned company is selling the Klondike Inn, one of two hotels it owns in the capital city, located at the corner of Second and Fourth avenues.

Having come on the market in February, it is currently listed at $6.8 million, making it the most expensive piece of property currently listed in the territory.

"Things are a little uncertain with the Yukon Queen, so that plays into it,” Stephen Leonard, Westmark's vice-president, said Thursday of why his chain is selling the 99-room hotel.

He was referring to the cruise the company operates on the Yukon River between Eagle, Alaska and Dawson City, which is a major draw for tourists. Holland America representatives have said in the past that the company would have to "reconsider” its Yukon operations if it couldn't run the cruise.

"And the highway washing out last year really threw a wrench in our plans,” Leonard told the Star.

Last summer, a series of washouts and highway closures on the road between Fairbanks, Eagle, and Dawson meant Holland America had to charter planes to take their tour guests from Alaska to the Klondike, a trip they would usually make by bus. Other travellers simply cancelled their plans.

Leonard said the company lost "over a million dollars.”

"We helped pay for Joe Sparling's new 737, that's for sure,” he added, referring to the president of Air North.

As for the Yukon Queen II, it remains a hot-button issue.

For years, the Yukon Environmental Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB), the territory's environmental screening agency, has been trying to come up with a decision on whether the high-powered catamaran is unduly harmful to the river ecosystem, and if so, how to mitigate the damage.

"For several years, we've been trying to mitigate what the Dawson First Nations think we're doing to the river,” Leonard said. "That's been hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we have to ask ourselves, ‘Where is this going to stop?'”

"I think the Yukon Queen has been a challenge for (Holland America),” Dee Enright, the Tourism Industry Association of Yukon's vice-chair, said today

"And while we appreciate YESAB's need to assess these projects ... the process needs to be more efficient.”

The Tr'ondek Hwech'in in Dawson has been one of the Yukon Queen's most vigorous detractors. It claims the wake from the vessel is eroding the river bank, while the boat's jets suck up and kill juvenile salmon.

If that is the case, Holland America would need special permission to operate from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which regulates any activities causing the death of fish.

In 2009, the First Nation accused Holland America of stalling the YESAB review so it could keep operating the vessel without the OK from Fisheries and Oceans.

Holland America responded by saying that any delays were caused by YESAB's Dawson office, which was unable to come to a conclusion on the file and passed it up to the board's executive committee in early 2009.

The second factor, Holland America said, was the fact the company was not even sure it would run the vessel in 2009 because of extensive flood damage in Eagle.

Meanwhile, the tourism industry went so far as to say the loss of the Yukon Queen would be "catastrophic”.

According to TIAY, Holland America accounts for a quarter of the visitors to the Yukon, who go on to spend an estimated $12 million a year Yukon-wide.

The company employs the equivalent of 200 full-time employees, and pays almost $1 million a year in wages, Enright said.

"And they spend about $11.5 million in promoting the Yukon,” Enright said. "... If that were to stop, it would definitely have an impact.”

The potential sale of the Klondike Inn should not be seen as evidence Holland America is pulling out of the Yukon, Leonard said.

He noted the company is currently investing money in the Westmark Whitehorse, and said any money the company has ever made in the Yukon has gone directly to improving its properties here.

Already, tour sales for the coming summer are higher than last year's, Leonard said, and the Klondike Inn is booked until September, when a new owner could take possession.

Under Holland America, the Klondike Inn is open from mid-May to mid-September. It used to be open year-round, and once hosted one of the city's most popular night spots for young people.

Once the hotel is sold, Leonard said, Holland America would likely enter into negotiations with the new owner to continue housing its guests there through the summer months.