Don Roberts, a former Liberal cabinet minister and one-time Yukon Party supporter, challenged Premier Dennis Fentie last night during the ruling Yukon Party's Whitehorse stop on its annual community tour.

The bone of contention is the potential merger of the publicly owned Yukon Energy Corp. assets with those of Yukon Electrical Co. Ltd., privately owned by Calgary-based ATCO.

Critics of the deal, including Willard Phelps, the former energy corporation board chair, insist it will lead to the privatization of the territory's public utility.

After being kicked out of the caucus of former premier Pat Duncan, Roberts backed Fentie and the Yukon Party in the 2002 election.

But at the Yukon Inn's conference room Tuesday evening, Roberts kicked off the public Q&A opportunity by lambasting Fentie, mocking his cabinet members also in attendance and demanding answers on the confidential dealings between the government and ATCO.

"As far as selling assets or privatizing, that's simply not on," Fentie responded before citing the government's energy strategy as the rationale behind discussions with ATCO.

"What is on is what we need to address, and that is the challenges we face in supply and other energy matters now and going forward."

Dissatisfied with the premier's response, Roberts ended the meeting by hammering Fentie and his government. The following is the back-and-forth between Roberts and Fentie:

Don Roberts:

"If I was jittery before I came in here and I presented my first question to you, I'm really jittery now. When I hear the name ATCO mentioned by Mr. Fentie again, and saying that there's no negotiations going on, I'm wondering, what am I to believe? .... We have seen a secret document that's about ready to be signed by your government, telling us that you were going down that path (of privatization).

"And all I hear from you is that you were in preliminary discussions or you were rationalizing, whatever that means. I think somewhere the truth is not being told and I, as a Yukoner, if we're going to go down any path that impacts on me, my children, my grandchildren, I want to be part of it.

"I hear a lot of accolades tonight about all the great things you're doing, but when it comes to some of the basic things, like power, like generation of energy, not only that; water, housing, sewer ... these are all things that are mentioned by yourself, Mr. Premier, supposedly, that ATCO could have access to. Now who are we to believe?

"I've heard this from people on the inside who basically said, 'Something is happening here and we as Yukoners are being left in the dark.'

"I want to see this government be honest, open and transparent. I don't see that anymore. I worked hard for you people at one time. I tell you, I will not do that again because I don't see that honesty anymore. I'm really disturbed, as a former politician and as a long-term resident living here 45 years .... And I see a lot of Yukoners sitting up there (beside the premier), and what are they doing?

They're just nodding their heads. That doesn't tell me that you have a mind of your own .... Let's be honest about what we're doing, where we're going and how we're going to do it and let's make sure Yukoners are involved. We don't have governments just every four or five years for the people. We have governments for the people everyday; people want to be involved. And some of you, I've phoned you, I've told you my concerns and I keep hearing this idea that you're a team. Well, I'm not hearing that from the public, by the way .... There is no team. And if that's the way you're going to carry on, then I think if you live by the sword, you're obviously going to die by the sword."

Premier Dennis Fentie:

"Well, thank you for that, Don. I don't know how else the government can present itself on this matter. The simple fact is we're not selling or privatizing and that's the bottom line. We have no document ready for signature, none whatsoever. I think what's unfortunate here is what's been put into the public should cause the concern and frankly, the government has had great difficulty with this because these aren't the things we're doing. At the end of the day, as I said, I think the lens of time will bear out exactly what is happening, where we're heading in terms of this energy. And by the way, Yukon Electrical has been producing energy in the Yukon for over a century."

Roberts:

"Then let's buy it."

Fentie:

"Well, ... let's buy it, that's another possible option. But the discussions that we came in with ATCO are nowhere near that stage, on buying, selling or anything else. They are centred on: 'What are we going to do in this territory - because we have these two energy companies - to meet this objective of providing efficient, affordable and consistent energy to Yukoners?' And we have a challenge in that regard. So I'm sorry that you feel that way. Anyway, I respect you and your opinion. But, um, I think I'll just let the public, and the government should let the public, draw their own conclusions and that's something that public has every right to do."

After the meeting wrapped, Roberts spoke briefly to the media on what he heard and his past affiliations with the Yukon Party.

Roberts:

"Fentie said we're not negotiating power here. He's wrong. We are negotiating power, we're negotiating probably a whole lifestyle here in the Yukon that has everything to do with, even housing, that he supposedly has offered to ATCO. But there's denial, denial, denial. And he still won't admit the fact that this has been on the table and all he keeps saying is, well, nothing, 'were just basically having preliminary discussions.'

Why are we even discussing it at all?

"Let's buy bloody Yukon Electric and be a fully public company. We don't need ATCO. ATCO wants our water, that's what they want.

They want our water, they want the whole power infrastructure because they know the potential up here. They're not fools. And why isn't it a public discussion? The Northwest Territories at least took the bull by the horns and said, 'OK, if ATCO wants to be part of this, let's go out to the communities and find out what they want.' And (N.W.T. Premier Floyd Roland) the premier there was very open about it. At least let's go and get some feedback.

What did they do here? They hid it. And if it wasn't for Willard Phelps and his three assistants, who were, by the way, Yukon Party appointees - and Willard Phelps has a stellar career here - I've not always agreed with him, I've had my arguments with him, but you know, on this issue, he is one of the few standing up for Yukoners. These guys are not. I'm so angry right now because I see Yukon

Energy, even in a small way, is going to be privatized. It's opening the door this much, and once they get in there, if the government is looking for money on Mayo B, guess what, he's going to ATCO to get it and ATCO are going to say, 'Sure, we're a multibillion (dollar) company. What's a few million dollars?'

"I think the concern here is more serious than people are really letting on."

The Star:

"Have you seen the seven-page joint discussion paper?"

Roberts:

"Yes, I have. How can they keep denying (that they're not privatizing the energy corporation)? That was a secret document released only through the good fortune of having some person who cares about the Yukon. Least of all, when you look at Willard, he's a long-time conservative, very deep in his bones. Basically, why is he saying we shouldn't go the private route? Obviously he knows what happens when countries, when provinces or when various jurisdictions go private, the costs go up."

The Star:

"So it's safe to say that you weren't satisfied with the answers you got here tonight?"

Roberts:

"Not at all. It's just a bland response, (Fentie says) 'It has nothing to do (with privatization)... we're not even negotiating.' And yet he mentioned ATCO again, several times, and that's why I got up. I wasn't going to get up a second time, but when Fentie kept mentioning ATCO, I said, 'This guy is not off that train. He's still on it.' If we continue with this same track, we're going to end up, in the long term, with no energy corporation. I don't care how small the crack is, if ATCO gets in with that much, they've opened the door.

I've heard strong conservatives, and I talk to a lot of people - they said, 'Let's buy ATCO. What are we doing? We don't need them.'

"I used to be one of the Yukon Party's strong supporters because I thought they were going to do things differently, but they're not."

The Star:

"You canvassed for some of these Yukon Party members?"

Roberts:

"Yes. I canvassed for Archie Lang, I canvassed for Elaine Taylor, I canvassed for Glenn Hart. I went door-to-door with these people.

And of course, they knew at that time (2002) there was a big issue around the Liberals. And I was one of those bad boys because I'd been kicked out (of the Liberal caucus). Because, how dare I challenge the premier (Pat Duncan)? How dare I ask, 'Why are we doing that?' And those were the reasons at that time that I was removed .... If you're a true team, you're actually discussing the issues and then you're coming forward with recommendations and then a final decision is made. Well, at that time when I was in government, a lot of the issues were never discussed. They came from the corner office with the non-elected people, and we were told, as elected people, that this is what's going to happen. The same thing is happening here. These people in the Yukon Party cabinet are being intimidated by the corner office."