The Yukon government is expected to call for a full review of the proposed extension of the power grid from Carmacks to Pelly Crossing.

In a letter to the Yukon Utility Board last week, Justice Minister Marian Horne indicates the government's intention. She also suggests the official notice to the board will be sometime in the next few weeks.

While parties to the process are welcoming the news, some are also wondering what's taken the territorial cabinet so long to make the announcement.

'I am pleased that the government has sent the letter,' Peter Percival, a Whitehorse engineer and intervener in the ongoing review of the project, said in an interview this morning. 'I am sorry they did not send it three, four, five months ago.

'And I am hoping the board will do the right thing and have a complete hearing with the utility available for cross-examination.'

Percival suspects the government was somewhat scared to make a decision too quickly, given the large cost overruns of the Mayo-Dawson City line under the former Liberal government.

It was Percival who recommended to the board as far back as last summer that if it was going to conduct a hearing into Yukon Energy's 20-year resource plan, it should review the proposed but imminent Carmacks-Pelly line at the same time, to save time and money.

The board, however, did not receive the required direction from the cabinet to review the Carmacks-Pelly line in conjunction with the 20-year-resource plan. The cabinet did indicate in a letter last summer, however, that if any of the major projects in the plan went forward, it would call for a full review of each project individually.

Participants involved in the ongoing review of Yukon Energy's 20-year-plan have claimed $510,000 in expenses to the middle of February, while their costs continue to rise. Costs awarded by the board are paid by ratepayers as a legitimate expense approved by the board.

Yukon Energy spokesman Janet Patterson said this morning if the board orders a another full hearing into the Carmacks-Pelly line proposal, it would cost the public corporation another $500,000 to $1 million to prepare for and appear at the hearing.

When the utilities board conducted public hearings into the 20-year plan in November, it noted that the work could not be complete until there was agreement to supply power to the new Minto mine available for review.

The power purchase agreement between Sherwood Copper Corp. and Yukon Energy was finalized Feb. 9.

Parties to the process have since been going back and forth on paper with questions and responses to a deal worth tens of millions of dollars over several years. The board has set March 15 as the deadline for final submissions on the proposed purchase agreement.

But in her letter last week, the Justice minister suggests the board now switch directions, and include its final recommendations on the power purchase agreement as part of the overall hearing into the Carmacks-Pelly Crossing line.

The board has asked the parties to comment on the letter by the end of today.

Premier Dennis Fentie said today the government has been clear from the start that it would hold project-specific hearings into major components of Yukon Energy's 20-year-plan.

Horne's letter to the board last week is in keeping with that commitment, he said.

The premier would not be specific when asked what was meant in terms of time lines when Horne indicated she would be formally calling for a review in the 'next few weeks.'

Nor would the premier comment on what the timing of the review might mean for the schedule outlined in the power purchase agreement that commits Yukon Energy to deliver power to the mine site by the end of next year.

Fentie said schedules are one thing, but his government's responsibility to conduct a full review of the project is paramount.

The Yukon Party, he said again, does not want to repeat the hugely expensive mistake of the former Liberal government.

Roger Rondeau of the Utilities Consumers' Group also favours a full review, but is also left wondering what Horne meant when she said she expected to make the order official in a few weeks.

He recognizes the schedule laid out in the purchase agreement is tight, though he also points out that having hydroelectric power delivered to the mine site saves the mining company $3 million a year. With those types of savings, he's not convinced that extending the schedule by a few months past the December 2008 deadline for delivery would be fatal for the deal.

Of the $510,000 in expense claims filed with the board to the middle of February, Yukon Energy is seeking $449,450 to cover legal and consulting fees and related expenses. The utilities group is seeking $56,797, of which $19,517 is to cover the fees and expenses for an Ontario utility lawyer, $18,810 for an Ontario consultant and $19,571 for Rondeau.

The Yukon Conservation Society is asking the board for $4,445 to cover staff time and expenses.