The B.C. Court of Appeal is scheduled to release its decision on the Peel watershed case tomorrow morning – and the Yukon NDP grilled the government Monday to disclose the costs of the lengthy legal battle.

“The government’s appeal of the Peel watershed land use plan has had one silver lining,” NDP Environment critic Kate White said during question period in the legislature.

“That is, the growth of community solidarity against the Yukon Party approach.”

Last spring, White said, access-to-information documents revealed that the government had spent around $430,000 in legal and communication strategies related to the Peel case.

That figure did not include the costs of the summer’s appeal case which was heard in the Yukon Court of Appeal over two days.

The case where environmental groups and First Nations continue to butt heads with the Yukon government went to the Court of Appeal after Justice Ron Veale quashed the government’s land-use plan last December.

“We feel that elected governments need to make decisions when it comes to Crown land in the territory, and that is something that we feel was jeopardized by the decision made by the Yukon Supreme Court at the time, and that’s why we chose to appeal,” said Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Scott Kent.

“The numbers that I have in front of me are for the legal costs associated with the trial, which was at the Yukon Supreme Court level,” said Kent.

The costs to have Vancouver lawyer John Hunter represent the government at that trial was $53,271, Kent said.

“We 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.”

Asked for up-to-date numbers, cabinet spokesperson Dan Macdonald said it would take a while to come up with concrete figures.