The Yukon government is still mum on details as for the extent of taxpayer dollars that have been spent on the lengthy Peel watershed legal battles.

On Monday, the Yukon NDP cited “some access-to-information documents” as the source for a cost-estimate of around $430,000 for Peel-related legal and communications strategies – leading up to, but not including, the Yukon Court of Appeal trial in August.

After obtaining the ATIPP documents, originally filed last April, the Star can confirm the money total as sitting at $428,687.

At the time of filing the ATIPP, the only estimate for the appeal trial that was provided was the hourly rate to be charged by Torys LLP, the law firm that represented the Yukon government in the appeal trial.

In the original Supreme Court case, the government retained a top Vancouver lawyer with Hunter Litigation Chambers – whose services totalled $53,503.74, according to the internal documents obtained from the ATIPP office.

For the appeal trial, the Yukon government replaced its Vancouver lawyer with four lawyers from Canadian international business law firm, Torys LLP.

In the internal documents, an official with the Department of Justice stated that the “hourly rate to be charged by Torys LLP on the appeal is $325/hour.”

The estimate of total costs for the appeal trial was “not predictable and cannot be provided” due to “the nature of the work,” the official stated in the email.

Yukon NDP Leader Liz Hanson suggested in an interview today that Torys LLP is one of the most expensive firms in Canada.

“That’s a modest calculation,” Hanson said of the reported $325 per hour amount.

“I think they’ve understated it.”

Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Scott Kent did not provide the legislative assembly with the estimated cost for the appeal trial when asked about it in legislature on Monday.

After making note of a slightly smaller amount of money paid to Hunter Litigation Chambers than stated in the internal emails, Kent said the government “will be in a position to release further costs for the amount that was accrued during the appeal process once that process comes to completion.”

In response to Kent, NDP MLA Kate White commented, “That leaves an awful lot on communications strategies.”

Included in the initial ATIPP request was how much money the Yukon government spent developing its own Peel land use plan – including number of in-house hours spent by government staff – and producing radio and visual material to promote the plan and advertise it in local papers and other media.

These costs comprised the bulk of the nearly $430,000 total – with $78,404 spent on land use planning and consulting services and a whopping $296,779 doled out for web design, writing, coordination and placement of advertisements.

“The costs learned from the ATIPP is the tip of the iceberg,” Hanson said, calling the dollar amount a “shameful” use of citizens’ resources.

“We’ve asked for those costs repeatedly ... and it hasn’t been tabled.

“This is such standard information.”

Cabinet spokesperson Dan Macdonald said this “standard information” will take weeks, not days, to come up with.

“We plan to release the total cost as one number, which includes work and advice on this decision,” Macdonald wrote in an email this morning.

“We won’t have the billings from the law firm until they’ve concluded their review of, and advice on the recent decision.”

Hanson indicated that the NDP will continue to push for answers on this issue.

“There is nothing that should be a surprise to (the government),” she said.

“The only surprise is that they’re not telling anyone about it.”