By leaking portions of this year's territorial budget before officially presenting it to the legislative assembly, Premier Dennis Fentie, who also serves as Finance minister, is thumbing his nose at democracy and Yukoners, say opposition party leaders.

On Tuesday morning, Fentie offered up significant details from the $1.07-billion budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, speaking to those at a $25/plate breakfast event sponsored by the Yukon and Whitehorse chambers of commerce.

While Fentie is expected to table the budget tomorrow afternoon when the legislative assembly commences its spring sitting, he has already foretold millions of dollars' worth of proposed government spending for the next fiscal year.

"It's very disappointing to see the premier continue to flout all convention,” Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell told the Star today.

"The budget should first be unveiled in front of legislative members and for the people those MLAs are there to represent.”

In the not too distant past, said Mitchell, Finance ministers of provincial, territorial and federal legislatures faced the threat of having portfolios revoked if budget details were leaked in advance.

"It all goes down to precedents, and the premier's pushing the limits when he goes to the chamber with the budget before the legislative assembly,” Mitchell said.

"Now that's disrespectful to other Yukoners.”

New Democratic Party Leader Elizabeth Hanson agrees. She called Fentie's actions consistent with "his increasingly antidemocratic approach” to running his government's affairs.

"What we're seeing here is he has more of an interest in currying the favour of various interest groups than he does of ensuring the democratic process works,” Hanson said.

"This is totally inappropriate, and I think Yukoners are getting really tired of the PR manipulation game.”

Sitting on a second consecutive billion-dollar budget, more than 70 per cent of which comes in the form of a direct federal transfer from Ottawa, Fentie and company can afford to be generous, it would appear.

The premier began the week by calling a press conference Monday morning to announce his government would double funding to three Whitehorse-based youth

organizations. Pricetag: $660,000.

On Tuesday, after revealing major spending details on millions of dollars' worth of construction, equipment, building upgrades and other big-ticket items to an audience of Whitehorse business people, another flurry of press releases touted poverty reduction, road upgrades and crime prevention initiatives.

Today, the government announced a $527,000 increase to the home care budget of the Department of Health and Social Services.

On the cusp of last year's budget, Fentie gave a similar breakfast performance for the territory's chambers of commerce and flooded the media landscape with scores of press

releases promising big dollars to an array of initiatives.

Orchestrated pre-budget leaks and announcements are a relatively new political strategy employed by former Liberal prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, and most recently by current Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In theory, secrecy serves two purposes: keeping the opposition in the dark and not offering up information that could be used by industry to gain an unfair advantage.

In 2009, Harper bore the brunt of much criticism by political foes for engaging in similar "budget previews” prior to the tabling of last year's federal budget.