Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to visit Whitehorse Friday and Saturday to mingle with members of the public and make an announcement on behalf of the federal government.

Yukoners will be able to meet him between 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Friday on the Yukon River side of the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre, at a spot away from the fire pit, Yukon MP Larry Bagnell confirmed to the Star Wednesday afternoon.

“I invite all Yukoners to a casual, fun and family-friendly constituency event, including tea and bannock, and s’mores for kids,” Bagnell said.

“He (Trudeau) will arrive and talk to the people,” the MP added.

“It’s just a chance for him to meet Yukoners.”

Trudeau is not expected to be accompanied by any family members, though that could always change at the last minute.

Hank Karr and the Canucks have been invited to perform at the event. No formal announcements are on the agenda.

The prime minister and his entourage will spend Friday night in Whitehorse.

On Saturday morning, Trudeau will meet with members of the media to make what’s being billed as an important announcement about the Yukon’s future before leaving the city.

It will be Trudeau’s first foray to the territory since winning the October 2015 election.

He visited in January 2011, when, among other engagements, he did some dog mushing.

Trudeau was last in Whitehorse for a few days in July 2013, largely to attend the Assembly of First Nations’ Annual General Assembly.

He did not visit during the 2015 election campaign, and opted not to do the Yukon leg of the Canadian tour by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in September 2016.

The political landscape was radically different from today’s when Trudeau last set foot on Yukon soil in 2013.

At that time, the Liberals were the second-largest opposition party in the House of Commons after the New Democrats.

A longer-haired version of today’s prime minister had assumed his party’s leadership just three months before his visit.

Stephen Harper was the Conservative prime minister, the Yukon’s Ryan Leef was one of his MPs, the just-retired Dan Lang was the Conservative senator, and the conservative Yukon Party formed the territorial government.

Harper visited the territory almost every year of his nine years as prime minister, but events fully open to all members of the public, such as tomorrow’s with Trudeau, rarely occurred.

The time lag between Trudeau’s election victory and the pending trip has not escaped the attention of the Yukon Party.

“After 668 days as prime minister, Justin Trudeau has finally decided to travel north to Yukon – the only jurisdiction in the country he has yet to visit,” the party said in a statement Wednesday.

“The prime minister’s two-year-long snub of the territory is symbolic of a lack of focus placed by this Liberal government on Canada’s northern peoples. Over the course of the first half of his mandate, the prime minister has:

• Cut territorial transfers to Yukon by $6.5 million annually;

• Reduced health funding to northern jurisdictions where the cost of service delivery is even higher than in the South;

• Unilaterally banned resource development without consulting Yukoners; and

• Failed to make any improvements to Nutrition North Canada.”

The Yukon Party compiled a list of places Trudeau has visited over the last couple of years:

• Saint Kitts and Nevis

• The Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas

• Rome

• Malta

• New York City (x4)

• Paris (x2)

• Switzerland

• Brussels (x2)

• Madagascar

• Buenos Aires

• Havana

• Ireland.

“It’s time for the federal government to stop treating Yukon as an afterthought,” said official Opposition Leader Stacey Hassard.

“Further, Premier (Sandy) Silver needs to do a better job of ensuring that Yukon is taken seriously on the national stage.”

Early in his leadership, Trudeau raised many Yukoners’ eyebrows when he erroneously suggested there are no party politics in the territory.