The territorial government will start to recoup part of the $36.5 million it invested in the failed Asset Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP ) offerings last year.

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a challenge from a group of companies that appealed the restructuring plan which will see the $32-billion investment repaid to thousands of creditors within eight years.

However, it won't be until 2016 that the entire sum, with some interest, is repaid under the agreement approved by 96 per cent of investors.

"It was a really small group, less than four per cent, who were against the plan," Clarke LaPrairie, the deputy finance minister, said today, adding the Yukon government supports the restructuring.

"In the long term, we're going to receive a floating interest rate that's defined as bankers' acceptance ... it's a half a per cent less than if we bought that type of investment (directly) from the banks."

On July 30, 31 and Aug. 1, 2007, the government invested in the ABCP offered by seven financiers, or trust fund managers, through the BMO Bank of Montreal.

The money and interest were supposed to be repaid after five weeks; however, sub-prime mortgage woes south of the border put financial markets in a tailspin, which froze the investment.

In the aftermath, Premier Dennis Fentie was sharply criticized by opposition parties for tying up taxpayers' dollars in a risky investment.

This criticism intensified following Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report that stated the Yukon government violated its own Financial Administration Act by making the investments.

LaPrairie told the Star that the government would receive two interest payments, one in October and another "in a few months," and that "the majority (of the investment) will be repaid quarterly for those eight years."

Investors are also on the hook for more than $100 million in legal fees and costs associated with restructuring the investment, which would be shared according to the value of respective investments.