A current and a former Yukon Party cabinet minister have expressed their regrets at the sudden passing of former Yukon MP Erik Nielsen.

They are mourning him as one of the major architects of the territory's current enjoyment of relative political independence and rich annual transfer payments from the federal government.

"Erik Nielsen was our member of Parliament for many, many years," Community Services Minister Archie Lang said in an interview

Thursday evening in Dawson City, where the cabinet held a public meeting as part of its territorial tour.

"Much of what we see here today, in the territory, was because of his hard work in Ottawa for the citizens of the Yukon. A lot of the infrastructure we see here today - for examples: the Dempster Highway, the airport in Whitehorse, the terminal in Whitehorse - all of this was orchestrated by Mr. Nielsen."

The former deputy prime minister "not only represented us, but represented Canada at a high level and certainly that compliments us as a community, that we could produce that calibre of individual to go to Ottawa and work for us," said Lang.

"I think that Erik was probably one of our longest-serving members of Parliament, over 25 years, and worked hard to represent us. He also put us on the Canadian map, and that was important.

"A lot of the transfer payments and a lot of the recognition by Ottawa (such as aboriginal) self-government, devolution, this was all work that Erik had put the foundations to as a very high representative of the federal government on that level.

"So it's a sad day for the territory. I certainly would like to say to his family that he was a fine man, a great gentleman and a great, great representative for us as Yukoners."

In the later years of his life, Nielsen spent much of his time in Kelowna, B.C., often spending long periods of time in Hawaii and regularly visiting his decades-old retreat at Quiet Lake.

Former Yukon Party cabinet minister Doug Phillips said today he last saw Nielsen and his wife, Shelley Coxford, about three years ago, and thought he looked "pretty good.

"I grew up with Erik Nielsen," Phillips said from his Marsh Lake home. "I worked on many of his campaigns over the years."

During Nielsen's last or second-to-last campaign, Phillips recalled, he and other Yukoners organized a car rally/parade to promote the federal Tories' prospects.

"It was two hours long, going all the way through downtown," Phillips said. "Erik was away because he was busy in Ottawa, but when he came back he was very grateful and very surprised .... He did some great things for the Yukon."

It was Nielsen who, as deputy prime minister, who played a pivotal role in the Yukon's signing a lucrative new formula financing agreement with the federal government in 1985, shortly before the New Democrats won their first election in the Yukon under Tony Penikett's leadership.

Nielsen's legacy, Phillips said, "is one of the reasons today the Yukon is so further ahead because he was one of the key people in signing the formula financing agreement."

From 1982 to 1985, the Yukon was strugging through extremely difficult financial times, what with the Faro lead-zinc mine, the Whitehorse Copper mine and the White Pass and Yukon Route railway all closing down in the face of slumping global metals prices.

Nielsen was acutely aware of the territory's struggles when the Mulroney government won the federal election held 24 years ago yesterday, Phillips said, and made a strong case with the new regime for acting to enhance the Yukon's sovereignty.

As Public Works minister in 1986, Nielsen was on hand to open the new Whitehorse Airport terminal building.

"If you look around today at many of the things in Whitehorse, like the (1986) airport expansion, Erik was involved with it," said Phillips.

"Erik helped us through the hardest times and made a big difference."

Nielsen was a proponent of the famous 1979 Epp letter, in which Jake Epp, then the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, granted the Yukon important new powers of responsible government.

Those rights remained in place on the strength of Epp's letter for many years until they were formally enshrined into the Yukon Act.

By Dan Davidson

and Jim Butler

The Whitehorse Star