The premier is pushing the capital budget to new heights over the $200-million mark breaking his word from last year.

Premier and Finance Minister Dennis Fentie is not due to table the 2005-06 budget until tomorrow afternoon.

Despite that, he told the gathering at Tuesday's Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the entire tally for the upcoming budget will be a previously unheard-of $206.4 million.

Last year's capital budget was a record-high $162.65 million.

Combined with an operations and maintenance budget of $543.1 million, Fentie's budget estimate for 2004-05 that he announced one year ago totalled a record of $705 million.

Tomorrow's announcement in the legislature, however, may blow that record completely out of the water.

Based on last year's $543.1-million figure and the average annual increase of 3.5 per cent that has been seen in the estimates over the past decade (except last year because it was abnormal due to the devolution of major federal responsibilities to the territory), the total operations and maintenance may be around $562 million.

If the operations and maintenance total is around $562 million, the overall budget total for 2005-06 would be $768 million, more than $60 million more than last year's total.

Regardless of how high the operations and maintenance budget is, Fentie's $44-million increase to the capital budget means he's going back on a pledge he made to Yukoners last year after delivering the 2004-05 budget.

During an interview after releasing the budget estimates, 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.

'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.'

While his government has since brought in more cash from Ottawa, he still appears to be going back on his fiscal prudence promise.

Both opposition leaders, who heard the announcement at the chamber luncheon, have concerns with Fentie's announcement.

NDP and official Opposition Leader Todd Hardy is concerned that the amount Fentie is planning to spend will not be sustainable into the future and the long-term.

'It's astounding, the number he threw out at the chamber meeting,' Hardy said earlier this afternoon.

'Fentie's taking spending to a new level that we haven't seen in the territory.'

Hardy said he will have to wait until tomorrow to see if a lot of this spending is new or whether it's money from projects he's announced in past years.

He noted that the federal Liberal government often announces plans for spending money over a five-year period, then keeps announcing it in each of those five years. He wonders if Fentie has adopted that type of spending method.

Liberal Leader Pat Duncan believes a good chunk of the capital budget will be money that was initially put into last year's budget and then not spent in the fiscal year. As well, she said, some of it will be out of federal infrastructure funds that have already been announced.

She's also concerned however, that Fentie may be excessively spending and taking the Yukon 'into financial waters we didn't want to go (to)'.

The government has already announced parts of the capital budget for the Department of Highways and Public Works.

It has announced there will be $69 million in the budget for road and bridge work.

As well, the government said it would be putting $45 million into the capital budget for rural infrastructure. It was not made clear how much of that $45 million was already announced in the $69 million.

It's virtually unheard of in political circles for a Finance minister to announce the exact figure of the capital budget before delivering the budget speech.

In the past in this country, the leaking of budget information before the delivery has led to police investigations and ministerial resignations.

Duncan is not happy with the premier's decision to first announce this information to the chamber of commerce, instead of to the Yukon public via the legislature.

'Again, it's contempt for the legislature and democratic institutions,' Duncan said.