The Yukon government will officially unveil the 2014/2015 fiscal year budget on Tuesday afternoon.

This afternoon, however, Premier and Finance Minister Darrell Pasloski offered a sneak peek to members of the business community at a luncheon hosted by the Yukon Chamber of Commerce.

His remarks came too late for this afternoon's press deadline and his office did not release an advance copy of his address.

"We think it's insulting to the democratic process to hold a function outside of the legislative assembly and to speak of the budget there (at the luncheon) first,” Sandy Silver, the leader of the Liberal party, said earlier this week.

The Star spoke with Silver and Liz Hanson, the leader of the NDP official Opposition, this week about their priorities for the upcoming sitting.

A cabinet spokeswoman said Pasloski would remain unavailable for comment all week for this article.

In the budget, Hanson said, she's particular interested to see if the government will meet the tourism industry's "modest request” for additional funding for advertising.

"Tourism is proven to be a solid piece of the economy, growth year after year,” Hanson noted.

On the economy generally, the NDP will be looking for signs that the government will make real investments outside of the territory's traditional, resource-based industries and begin to develop a long-term economic strategy for the Yukon.

Beyond the budget, the NDP is looking for signs from the Yukon Party government that it will work to meet its obligations to other levels of government, particularly First Nations, and take concrete steps to avoid continued court action.

During community visits between this sitting and last, Hanson said the future of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the territory was raised in every meeting.

People are concerned about the legitimacy of the Select Committee Regarding the Risks and Benefits of Hydraulic Fracturing, she said.

She called "troubling” the government's work touting the benefits of oil and gas, and its investments in infrastructure to support the industry, considering Yukoners have not yet provided social licence for the practice.

"I don't see a parallel development of an infrastructure for renewable energy, but I certainly see a concerted development in the oil and gas sector,” she said.

At the same time, Hanson said, she's urging people to have faith in the committee's work.

"We have to let this committee do its work and do it openly,” she said, suggesting this issue provides the government with the perfect opportunity to show it's listening to Yukoners by respecting the recommendations of the committee.

Hanson said the NDP plans to bring forward legislative initiatives this sitting, including lobbying legislation.

"We're one of the last jurisdictions in Canada to not recognize that the notion of petitioning your government, lobbying in other words, seeking to influence how government decisions are made, is an absolutely legitimate activity, it's part of democracy, but doing it in secret is not,” she said.

"Fracking is a classic example. There is a whole suite of people who are currently talking to cabinet ministers and members of government and senior officials and citizens have every right to know what those conversations are about,” Hanson contended.

The upcoming sitting will be Silver's first as the Liberal party's official leader. The "interim” was dropped from his title in February.

Silver said the party will be doing things "a little bit differently” this sitting.

Most of his questions will come from issues important to Yukoners, gathered through conversations by the party's members and volunteers.

"Last session, we had a lot of success with the questions from the F.H. Collins kids or a lot of my questions on economic development were from agencies as opposed to from the Liberal caucus office,” he noted.

"As you move forward into the next election and as you move forward into forming policy, policy can't come out of the blue, it can't come out of nowhere.

"And we're not doing our job if we're not researching and analyzing what issues are important to Yukoners,” he said.

Silver said if the process works the way it should, the issues he raises in the legislature in the sittings before the next election will form the Liberal platform and its policy priorities when it "forms the next government.

"I think we're the only real party that can have that internal conversation on major issues where we analyze both political spectrums, people to the left, people to the right, and be able to move forward on common goals,” he said.

"We believe that Yukoners have more things in common than the issues that polarize us, and we're willing to form a party based on those common goals,” Silver said.

The 2014 spring sitting of the legislature will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

As is becoming tradition, Yukoners seeking protection of the Peel watershed will gather outside the government's main administrative building before the start of question period.

See Monday's edition for a report on the premier's luncheon speech.