Both opposition parties question the government's spending bonanza in light of the premier's promises of fiscal prudence.

Premier and Finance Minister Dennis Fentie tabled his government's 2005-06 budget last Thursday afternoon.

The budget included a record-smashing $784.4 million in spending. The previous record was last year's total of $705.7 million.

'And the first thing he does when he's given the opportunity is he goes on a spending spree the likes of this territory has never seen before. And it doesn't seem to have abated at all,' NDP Leader Todd Hardy said Thursday afternoon.

Hardy is concerned the spending may mean that the Yukon Party 'is on the way out and they're going to break the bank as fast as they possibly can. They're going to spend every penny that there is and they don't care about long term.'

The NDP leader said that as he listened to the first 10 minutes of Fentie's two-hour budget speech, he thought it might as well have been delivered by federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.

'It was all about federal funds that are pouring into this territory,' said Hardy.

Liberal Leader Pat Duncan, a former premier and Finance minister, described this as the Can't Buy Me Love budget.

'The Yukon Party is desperate to repair the damage that they've done to relations with the first nations, with the public servants, with Yukoners as a whole,' she said Thursday.

'Their solution is spend, spend, spend.'

She believes the government should do more than just cashing cheques from Ottawa and try to work with its public servants.

During an interview after releasing last year's budget estimates a year ago, Fentie indicated Yukoners shouldn't expect a spending spree of this magnitude again before the next territorial election.

'We have chosen this budget to make some major expenditures towards the Yukon government,' said Fentie one year ago.

'We want to maintain fiscal prudence throughout the rest of our mandate. So, it was a conscious choice to use this budget as a budget where we will make some very significant investments.'

Last Thursday, the premier said he was able to spend more this year despite last year's pledge because of the increases in money the federal government has dropped onto the territory.

'We have managed to increase the Yukon Territory's financial position,' said the premier, taking credit for the boost in funding from Ottawa. He credits the prominence he believes his government now has nationally that has led to these windfalls.

'The Yukon, under the previous Liberal government, did not have that much stroke on the national stage,' he said.

He said the showering of federal cash began with the walkout on national health care funding negotiations by himself and his fellow territorial premiers in 2003.

The Liberal party would attribute much of the increases in federal money not to Fentie but to the Yukon's Liberal MP, Larry Bagnell.

Since taking power, the premier has often spoke about improving the territory's economy and reduce its reliance on the 'southern taxpayer' specifically, money from Ottawa.

Hardy noted Fentie's talk about reducing the reliance on Ottawa.

'What we see, of course, is just the opposite. This is a premier that says one thing and is definitely going in the opposite direction and is relying on a massive influx from the federal, minority government,' said the NDP boss.

Fentie was asked if he was concerned that his government is relying too much on Ottawa to pay the tab.

He said his government is wisely investing the federal money to eventually take the Yukon away from its reliance on Ottawa's coffers.

Growth in its own revenues has gone up eight per cent, he added, while there was only a 5.3-per-cent increase in transfers from Ottawa.

'I'd say we're headed in the right direction.'

Those figures appear to be based on a comparison between the estimates for 2005-06 that he announced Thursday, and the most recent forecast for the 2004-05 year, taking into account the windfalls of cash that have already been announced by Ottawa.

If the 2005-06 estimate is compared to the estimate for 2004-05 he tabled a year ago, then there is an increase in the territory's own revenues of 10.6 per cent and a boost in federal transfers of 19.5 per cent.

For this budget, the federal transfers make up 72 per cent of the expected revenue for the 2005-06 fiscal year. That is down from 72.3 per cent in 2004-05.

However, it's up from Fentie's first budget in 2002-03, when 70.4 per cent of the revenue came from Ottawa.

In the last budget delivered by former premier Duncan in 2001-02, 69.5 per cent of the revenue came from the federal government.

While there was an increase in revenue, taxes were not cut at all in this budget.

The premier wouldn't say why Yukoners' personal income taxes weren't cut. However, he wouldn't rule it out for future budgets.

Duncan has an idea why there were no income tax cuts for Yukoners.

'That would take hard work,' said Duncan. 'They haven't done the hard work.'

She said a government would have to do consultation and look at changing laws to do a tax cut, something this government has not done.

Hardy wonders if the fact much of the money is coming from Ottawa may be the reason for the lack of tax cuts.

The NDP leader said the federal gravy train can't be considered sustainable since this could all dry up. He noted there is currently a minority government in place.

Hardy said Fentie may realize his spending habits have to come to end and that may be why he hasn't touched the income taxes.

'If he truly knows it's not sustainable, you wouldn't lower the taxes and then find yourself in a really difficult situation of having to raise the taxes again.'

He also wonders if Ottawa does not want the territory to reduce its personal income taxes.

Looking at the budget, Duncan talked about what she didn't see on Fentie's spending list. She noted the spending for a new recreation centre for Mayo has vanished off the radar screen.

'What happened to it?' she asked.

Duncan also mentioned the lack of spending in one department.

'In just reading through the budget, you'd think the Department of the Environment doesn't exist,' she said.

'The budget's bare of environmental initiatives.'

Hardy, who was concerned with a lack of attention to the environment in last year's budget, brought up that concern again.

'They have done nothing about the environment,' he said.

'I think they have aggressively targeted this department and this area of concern.'

Hardy called it 'an assault on the environment.'

He was also unhappy that there wasn't much in the budget for lower-income Yukoners, including much in the way of affordable housing.