The territory's largest labour group wants to know why it and other Yukoners were shut out of a private consultation meeting Monday with the federal Finance minister about the national budget.

'As the biggest labour group to represent men and women in the Yukon, we weren't invited,' Alex Furlong, president of the Yukon Federation of Labour (YFL), said in an interview today.

Furlong was referring to a closed-door meeting Monday at the Northwestel Inc. offices in Whitehorse. Fourteen Yukoners, most of whom were representing specific groups, were able to tell federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale via a video teleconference call what they want to see in Ottawa's next budget.

Furlong said it would have been a good chance for the YFL to talk to Goodale about a number of issues, including a labour-sponsored capital fund, money, municipal infrastructure and unemployment insurance.

The meeting was organized Yukon MP Larry Bagnell.

'I invited people, primarily that had approached me recently, in the last few months, with budget-type issues,' Bagnell said Monday, following the meeting.

'Having not had that opportunity now, I'm very disappointed at Mr. Bagnell,' said Furlong. 'It's not like Larry doesn't know our number.'

Bagnell was asked why he didn't contact the YFL. He said he did call but Bagnell was referring to the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). The PSAC represents the most Yukoners. The PSAC is one member of the larger YFL.

However, Furlong works at the PSAC's Second Avenue office. He said he did not know about the meeting until an hour before it was scheduled to start.

The meeting was not made public and only open to Bagnell's invitees.

'There's only room for so many people,' Bagnell said of the video conference room at Northwestel's Lambert Street office. He said he got as many people into the one-hour meeting as possible.

Last year, Yukoners had a chance to speak with then-Finance minister John Manley about the budget via video teleconference. That meeting was open to anyone in the public.

This time, the gathering was closed and no one from the public was allowed in.

Furlong thinks Bagnell should have made it public that the meeting was going to take place.

'I'm sure there were many groups that didn't have the opportunity yesterday,' he said.

But behind closed doors is how Goodale is conducting all of these consultations.

Following the meeting, when the door was opened, Goodale explained, via video conference from Vancouver, why the door was closed.

'There's no effort here to shut out the public,' said Goodale. 'Quite frankly, I have found it useful, when people really want to talk to me from a candid point of view and give me the benefit of their most blunt and direct advice, that having them around the table without the glare of cameras and microphones is a useful thing to do.'

Goodale said those who attended the meeting are free to comment about it outside the venue.

'There's no secrecy here at all.'

The minister said the fact he is holding these types of private meetings across the country 'demonstrates an attempt to be open and inclusive.'

Goodale added that there are other ways for people to comment on the budget.

He was asked what other avenues of consultation are available. Goodale said the House of Commons' finance committee meetings held in Ottawa last year were one way for people to comment on the budget.

He added that MPs like Bagnell receive comments from their constituents which are passed on to him and his staff.

Bagnell said today the YFL can write a submission and he'd be 'happy to deliver that'.

The groups invited by Bagnell were:

• Yukon Chamber of Mines;

• Association of Yukon Communities;

• Yukon Chamber of Commerce;

• Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce;

• Tourism Industry Association Yukon;

• Yukon Registered Nurses Association;

• Yukon College;

• Association Franco Yukonnaise;

• Yukon Arts Centre;

• PSAC;

• Yukon Medical Association;

• Council of Yukon First Nations;

• and the local chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Also invited were social activist Ross Findlater, who has worked on homelessness issues, and Marie Abbott, a Grade 8 student who wrote to Bagnell about various issues.

As for the closed-door session, Goodale said the people spoke about different issues, including education and health care.

'We've heard about northern social issues, the concerns of the disabled, the concerns with respect to home care, the issues affecting small business, affecting science and research and education in the North; the cultural sectors in the North,' said Goodale.

One of the biggest topics mentioned during the meeting, according to the minister, was economic development funding for the North.

The minister sensed an impatience from the people at the meeting with plans for economic development for the North not moving ahead.

'I've taken note of that sense of northerners that progress has not been as rapid as they would've hoped for in terms of their economic development opportunities.'

The issue has been raised repeatedly over the past few years, including with Manley last year, but nothing has been done on that front.

Goodale was asked if he would at least consider putting funding for northern economic development into the upcoming budget.

'I'm more than anxious to work with Larry Bagnell and our other MPs from northern Canada to advance the economic development ambitions of northern Canada. Exactly the timing and the pace of that, of course, remains to be determined but it is an issue that I'm sensitive to,' said Goodale, who noted he has fiscal constraints.

Goodale said he wouldn't commit to creating a northern economic development fund but he wouldn't answer the question as to whether it would even be considered. The North is the only place without a regional economic development fund other than southern Ontario.

When he was sworn-in to the Privy Council last month as a parliamentary secretary, Bagnell was given a specific responsibility on this front.

He is the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs with special responsibility to northern economic development.

'I'm definitely going to be working on it over the next year.' Bagnell said there has already been progress made because Ottawa has put millions of dollars toward infrastructure in the territories.

Last fall, $15 million was pledged by the federal government for upgrading the Alaska Highway. More money has been set aside by Ottawa for other infrastructure work within the territory.

'I'm going to be consulting this year and I've already started talking to a number of people.'

Bagnell will also speak to people in Nunavut and the N.W.T.

He noted that economic development for the North is not 'one-size fits all' since needs are different in each territory.

'Each territory has a different viewpoint and I'm going to be collecting those viewpoints before I put them into a comprehensive strategy.'

There is no specific timeframe for Bagnell to deliver his strategy to Northern Affairs Minister Andy Mitchell.

'I'd just like to do it as soon as possible,' said Bagnell.

Goodale's budget will likely be tabled in the next few months.

Bagnell said the creation of an economic development plan is more than just throwing money at the territories.

'A grant doesn't make an economy.'

He said there needs to be a plan to properly spend money to create jobs in the North.