Liberal Leader Sandy Silver came out swinging during the first question period of the 2014 spring legislative sitting, asking why the premier spent an evening in Vancouver promoting the Yukon Party rather than the Yukon Territory.

On the Sunday night before the annual Mining Roundup conference began in Vancouver in late January, Premier Darrell Pasloski and ministers Scott Kent and Currie Dixon were aboard the Pride of Vancouver, a chartered yacht which took them on a dinner cruise around the Burrard Inlet.

The cruise was a Yukon Party fund-raiser aimed, according to Silver, at inviting the mining industry to a "Yukon Party ‘Party'” and offering an "exclusive opportunity to connect with Premier Pasloski and Ministers Kent and Dixon.”

The party sold tickets for $300 apiece.

"The premier and his ministers were travelling on the taxpayers' dollar,” Silver noted during question period.

"They were supposed to be spending their time working on behalf of Yukoners, not raising money for their re-election fund.

"Now if the premier doesn't see a problem with that, we have a bigger problem. Our exploration industry is in a tailspin. The premier and his ministers were supposed to be spending their time trying to reverse this trend.”

In response to Silver's questioning, the premier noted he and the ministers use the mining conference to meet with companies doing business in the territory to ensure the "communication lines” are kept open.

"We're also continuing to focus on promoting this as a very strong investment opportunity for people to invest in both the exploration industry and in the extraction industry as well,” he said.

"There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into the mineral Roundup as there is for PDAC or Cambridge House.

"The days are long, they begin early, they go well into the night, and I would commend not only the ministers but their staff for the hard work that they do,” Pasloski continued.

"We are not on 24/7, and there is an opportunity for personal time when we are in Vancouver, and that, Mr. Speaker, is not unheard of at all.”

The amount of money the Yukon Party raised from its visitors that evening was unavailable.

Speaking with reporters following his budget speech, Pasloski said the yacht cruise was organized by the party, not the government, and any time the ministers were involved, it was on personal time.

"If the leader of the Liberal party drives to Whitehorse and bills the government as part of his expense to come here but then does party business or comes to a fund-raiser, how is that any different?” the premier asked.

Other topics raised during the opening day of the legislature include economic certainty and the impact of ongoing lawsuits between the government and First Nations, the Peel River watershed land use plan, cleanup of contaminated sites, and lobbying legislation.

The NDP's Justice critic, Lois Moorcroft raised the issue of lobbying legislation.

She asked if the government "will join governments across the country and bring in lobbying legislation so Yukoners know who is influencing the decisions that affect them every day?”

The premier responded: "As I have said many times in this house, I don't think that we need to be asking such groups as the (Yukon) Anti-Poverty Coalition, the Salvation Army, FASSY, outfitters, WTAY, TIAY, AYC, AFY, municipalities, YCS, Challenge, Canadian Cancer Society — they are just some examples — school councils — should they all be registered lobbyists?

"We don't believe that they should be. We believe that there is an opportunity for groups and individuals to talk to the government, to their representative MLAs, to ensure that their concerns are heard and addressed, and we'll continue to do so.”

But it's not the community and volunteer organizations the NDP is concerned about. Rather, it's the paid lobbyists whose job it is to influence government policy in favour of whoever they're representing – large multinational corporations, unions, trade organizations etc., Moorcroft said.

She noted lobbying is a legitimate activity within a democracy, just not behind closed doors.