Answers the ruling Yukon Party provided to Whitehorse residents' questions at Tuesday evening's community forum had a similar ring to a typical session of the legislative assembly.

Between weathering condemnation from a former Liberal cabinet minister over secret talks that could privatize the Yukon's public utility (see Wednesday's Star), Premier Dennis Fentie and his cabinet gang offered plenty of government speak, while dancing around thornier issues like the Peel River watershed, or the territory's lack of beverage container legislation.

One woman asked if the premium charge for residents using more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours of power each month would be scrapped, the idea being to encourage home heating with electricity.

First shifting the topic to the Mayo B hydro expansion, then citing a cost-of-service analysis the energy corporation and private utility will file with the Public Utilities Board, Fentie did everything but provide a straight answer.

"We agree that homeowners should have the choice of using electrical heat because part of our overall climate change strategy and action plan is to continue to reduce emissions," he said.

When the premier was pressed on "due diligence" done prior to deciding Mayo's hydro expansion was necessary, instead of considering wind power or other possibilities, he caged the cost of

diesel and resulting emissions as the driving force behind any due diligence.

"It was the one of the projects the energy corporation had that was accessible in the immediate (future) to address the (electricity) supply issue by 2012. The due diligence would have been done by the corporation and in simple terms, it was the issue of offsetting ever-rising costs with the use of diesel," said the premier.

"Our base load, for the most part, comes from hydro. It is the peak period that the consumption of diesel kicks in. With the Mayo B project, we'll be addressing that even further."

Another woman, speaking on behalf of the Yukon Conservation Society, received a somewhat more straightforward answer from the premier after approaching the same question from another angle.

"I think what we have to do is first put this into the context of timeline, when it comes to the economics. I reference back to my comments about the year 2012 ... and the 15-per-cent increase in supply needs," said Fentie.

"Because many of these other alternatives will take considerable time to advance them to a point where they may become a viable project. The energy corporation brought forward Mayo B as the mitigating project to address these supply challenges. If we don't do this, the economics are very troubling."

When a representative from the Raven Recycling Society questioned the government on whether it's working on beverage container regulations that would prohibit the sale of drinks packaged in non-recyclable containers, she received the most roundabout "no" answer.

Environment Minister Elaine Taylor first noted the $320,000 the government provided Raven Recycling to keep its operation afloat amidst a plunge in commodities prices worldwide. Then Taylor employed some classic bureaucratese to say, basically, the government was not doing anything on beverage container legislation.

"It's an ongoing process in terms of going forward with the solid waste strategy," she said.

The best non-answer of the night was a toss-up between a question on the government providing ongoing funding for the Whitehorse food bank and another on protecting the Peel River watershed.

On the former, Fentie called the food bank a "noble initiative" and something "the community rallied around," prompting even him to "stop by for a visit."

However, the premier did not even address the financing question but managed to mention the government's recent increases to the social assistance rates. Last March, the government increased its annual funding of social programs by $20 million.

Instead of answering the latter question, urging the government to protect most, if not all of the Peel River watershed from mining, Fentie dwelled on the onerous nature of the Umbrella Final Agreement.

"You know there's never been a land use plan in the Yukon until recently, and I think it's very fair to say that the reason we got a North Yukon land use plan is because we as governments, the Vuntut Gwitchin and the Yukon, did not deviate from the Umbrella Final Agreement," he said, without addressing the conservation aspect.

Earlier this year, Fentie was accused of meddling in the watershed planning process by influencing the contents of a report for the commission produced by the Department of Environment.

But at the forum, the premier focused on the challenges of "government-to-government" dealings.

"So we have to go through the process that includes YTG, Tr'ondek Hwech'in, Nacho Nyak Dun and a transboundary first nation, in this case the Gwich'in Tribal Council.

"All these orders of governments have to address this issue and remain consistent with the Umbrella Final Agreement .... I don't think anybody disputes what this area means, especially to first

nations."