Premier Dennis Fentie bought a new pair of Florsheim shoes for tabling the 2007-08 budget.

Standing in the legislative assembly, at size 8 1/2, he then brought forward more than $100 million per shoe size in the largest ever Yukon budget $862 million.

But the Finance minister never put the new footwear on his feet.

'It's not a question of putting them on or not. The issue is that I kept with tradition and got a new pair of shoes to table this budget,' said Fentie, 'and a big budget it is.'

Like the shoes worn for the hour-and-a-half budget address, there wasn't much new about the spending announcements, the opposition stated.

'How quickly the opposition is to draw conclusions,' said Fentie. 'After a couple of heartbeats, they've decided the budget is no good.'

The budget is a clear investment in the continuance and consistency of direction in the territory, said Fentie.

It is what Yukoners voted for when they returned the Yukon Party to office for a second mandate in October 2006, he said. It's the first time any party has been given a back-to-back majority since 1989.

The budget shows a slight $2.6-million deficit and again nets 72 per cent of its revenue from $593 million in transfers from the federal government.

But it is built around the four pillars the Yukon Party campaigned on and it is delivering on election commitments, Fentie told reporters.

Structured around the themes of the quality of life, the environment, a strong economy and diversified private sector and good governance, the budget books $649 million for operations and maintenance and $212 million in capital projects.

'There's been improvement in investment in a number of areas, especially the environment,' said Fentie.

The budget includes $400,000 for the continuation of the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods office aimed at shutting down drug houses; $3.24 million for the planning of a new Whitehorse correctional centre; $2.1 million to recruit doctors and health care professionals; $1.5 million for arts groups; $5 million for the Hamilton Boulevard extension, as well as money for community centres, fire halls, waterfronts, tourism and affordable housing.

The budget, however, focuses heavily on the environment, said Fentie, who also holds the position of Environment Minister.

Under the pillar of the environment, the budget commits to investing $145,000 to develop a climate change action plan, $1.28 million to survey wildlife, $330,000 into expanding the territory's park officer program and $105,000 for apprenticeships for big game guiding and horse wrangling.

In his budget speech, Fentie again touched on the government's plans to establish a climate change research centre at Yukon College and a cold climate innovation cluster. No money is allocated in the budget for either project.

Approximately $5 million in federal funding will be used to install a third hydro tribune in Aishihik to cut down on emissions and the use of diesel generation, said Fentie.

The initiatives will provide the government with a better understanding of climate change to more readily address it in the future, said Fentie.

He scoffed at criticism from the opposition benches that the budget does not address social assistance or child care.

'We're not going to do something that's so important to Yukon's society, families and children that we're going to do something in two months that might take a year,' he said.

Work is being done in both areas and is taken seriously by the government. The areas will be addressed, he said. 'We've got to get this done right.'

The Finance minister said the government is unconcerned with the small deficit the books are currently showing. The last two budgets tabled in the Yukon Party's first mandate showed a surplus.

The line in the red has do to with accounting legalities and how money from federal trusts had to be booked in a single year, rather than spread out over several, he said.

'It is a balanced budget in all its definition,' he said. 'We have a healthy net financial position.'

The net financial resources for the year end still show $87,519 with an accumulated surplus of $532 million. The numbers are based on a new accounting method that takes into account the value of all the government's assets, including buildings.

The territory has an established fiscal relationship with Canada and is no longer getting qualified audits, he said.

The new territorial financing formula, announced last month, moved back to a gap-filling approach that netted the Yukon $26 million more for the Yukon this year.

'I'm quite proud of the accomplishment by our government in the fiscal area,' he said.

Fentie labelled the new financing formula as one of the most important achievements of his government.

'It is a keep-on-going' (budget),' said Fentie, agreeing with the opposition label.

'That's why we got re-elected. It was this party and this government that said what Yukon needs today to build its future is to build political stability and consistency in policy and direction.'

It's not a question of when government stops planning and starts building some of the projects highlighted in its last term in office or the budget campaign, he said.

Planning is a perquisite to any project, said Fentie, and the initiatives in the budget are just the first instalment to meeting the commitments of the 2006 campaign.

'The minute you stop planning, that's when the waste and squandering of taxpayers' funds takes place,' he said. 'As a government, we'll never stop planning.'

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