Yukon Energy privatization never considered, Fentie insists

Premier Dennis Fentie stuck to his message Tuesday, denying allegations that his government was planning to privatize Yukon Energy Corp.

"This government has never talked about, dreamt about, fantasized about selling the Yukon Energy Corp.'s assets," Fentie told reporters, maintaining a position he's held since four Yukon Energy board members — including chairman Willard Phelps — quit on June 8, accusing the premier of political interference.

Yukon Energy employees who rallied against privatization on Monday cited Pat Irvine, the board's interim chairman, as saying the government had been in secret talks to sell the utility to Alberta-based ATCO, which owns Yukon Electrical Company Ltd.

But Irvine backed the premier on Tuesday, saying he has now seen all the documents related to the issue.

"There's nothing in any of those documents that mentions sale of assets, and there's nothing there that says there's anything about a management team coming in to take over, or anything like that," he told CBC News.

"I don't know where all this other stuff came from."

Phelps, who attended Monday's anti-privatization rally, blasted cabinet ministers in Fentie's Yukon Party government for not standing up to a premier that he called a "tin pot dictator."

"You know, the demonstration of leadership is not measured by who you can strong-arm, it's who you can work with," Fentie countered.

"I think that's why this government's been successful."

Officials with Yukon Electrical, which distributes electricity to customers across the territory, said it had never considered Yukon Energy's assets to be for sale.

In a release, Yukon Electrical general manager Jerome Babyn stated that recent talks with the territorial government were aimed simply at streamlining operations of the territory's two power companies.