The territorial government has fired back against a B.C. First Nation's claim that Yukon lawmakers acted illegally when they approved the construction of a public campground, on top of mineral claims, inside Tlingit traditional territory.

The government filed its statement of defence in Yukon Supreme Court this week as part of a lawsuit launched against it last month by the Taku River Tlingit First Nation.

The lawsuit argues the government breached its legal duty to consult the Atlin First Nation before issuing a decision on the territorial campground, approved for construction along the Atlin Road last January.

The government retorted in its statement of defence "that it did properly engage in consultation with the plaintiff regarding the proposed campground.”

The statement lists more than 60 emails and meetings between government officials and First Nation representatives between May 6, 2013 and Jan. 22 of this year.

Those correspondences began after the government had already announced the campground in its budget speech on March 14, 2013.

The government also denied "having engaged in conduct adversely affecting the plaintiff's asserted aboriginal title or rights to or in the lands in question.”

The statement goes a step further, arguing that the Taku River Tlingit's "claim to aboriginal title and rights” to the site "has not been established to be a strong claim.”

The government nonetheless insisted the proposed campground would not put the land out of reach in future treaty negotiations because it would remain in government hands as before.

No third party would be involved to muddle potential deal-making.

The Taku River Tlingit said in their statement of claim that the campground, "if developed, may ... prejudicially affect the negotiations towards a settlement ... insofar as the lands would no longer be available as a land selection.”

The legal document invokes a "constitutionally imperative duty of deep consultation” by the Yukon government — for both the campground and the mineral claims.

The government, however, starkly opposed the latter assertion: "the defendant denies that it has an obligation to consult the plaintiff prior to recording the staking of quartz mineral claims within the lands in question.”

The government claimed ignorance on how mineral claims might impact future Taku River Tlingit land rights and title in the area. "(T)he defendant has no knowledge that the plaintiff's asserted aboriginal rights regarding the lands in question have been or will be prejudicially affected by mining exploration activities. ....”

Stephen Walsh, the lawyer for the Taku River Tlingit, said the First Nation would respond to the government's statement of defence before the judge begins consideration of the case.

"It's likely that my client will want to exercise its right to file a reply,” he told the Star after a case

management conference between the two parties in Yukon Supreme Court yesterday.

"They have a week to do that and then away we go.”

The public campground would sit on a 112-hectare tract of land reserved by the Crown for "parks and

campground” since 1988.

Roughly one third of that tract was designated as a reserve as far back as 1971.

The Yukon government plans to begin building its campground this summer.

Last August, it submitted its project proposal for review by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, which recommended approval in late November.

The government issued its decision on Jan. 22 accepting the assessment board's recommendation to proceed with construction.

The Taku River Tlingit opposed the project in a letter to the board, citing anticipated "economic, social and environmental impacts.

"The Yukon government chose not to consult with the TRTFN prior to announcing this campground in a budget speech on March 14, 2013” — an assertion the government does not deny.

"It is not acceptable for our Nation to learn of a governmental decision that would permanently impact and alienate a portion of our traditional territory without previous consultation.”

In 1983, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation — then the Atlin Indian Band — made a comprehensive land claim to a tract in northwestern British Columbia along with an adjacent part of the Yukon.

The following year, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada — then the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs — accepted negotiations for the claim, one that remains unresolved.

The Yukon government was threatened with another legal action last January by the White River First Nation, one of three Yukon First Nations without a land claim settlement.

The First Nation indicated in a press release if the government did not implement a moratorium on mineral staking for White River's traditional territory, as it has for Ross River, the First Nation would take legal action.

Last February, the Gwich'in Tribal Council of Inuvik filed a lawsuit against the Yukon government.

It claimed the government's adoption of the Peel land use plan amounted to a breach of the Gwich'in trans-boundary land claim settlement inside the Peel River watershed.

In late January, the Peel plan adoption resulted in a lawsuit filed jointly by the First Nation of Na-cho Nyak Dun, the Tr'ondek Hwech'in of Dawson City, the Yukon Conservation Society and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

The lawsuit claims the government's adoption of the plan was unilateral and unlawful because it breached the co-operative process outlined in the Yukon's aboriginal land claim settlements.