Until the end of its mandate, the Yukon Party issued its own caucus members sole-sourced contracts.
On May 29 — five days after the spring session of the legislative assembly convened — the Yukon government signed a contract with the Watson Lake Hotel, owned by Energy Minister Archie Lang.
The $12,972 contract, which was sole-sourced to rent rooms from Lang’s hotel during this summer’s Highway Equipment Rental Contracts program, was approved by Highways Minister Glenn Hart.
The contract ended August 31, nine days before Premier Dennis Fentie called the election.
This week, Hart and Lang have not responded to requests for interviews.
This summer wasn’t the first time Lang received such contracts.
Disclosure statements filed with the legislative assembly office show several of Lang’s holding companies receiving “various contracts” to “provide food and lodging to government employees” throughout 2005 and 2006.
The cash amounts of the contracts are not disclosed in Lang’s statements.
But the government’s contract registry shows that the Gateway Motor Inn, also owned by Lang, received a $2,016 sole-sourced contract in 2005.
Other Yukon Party MLAs were more candid in their disclosure statements.
Dean Hassard, former MLA for Pelly-Nisutlin, received nine contracts in 2006 through Deadman Creek Enterprises Inc., a Teslin-based company Hassard owns with his father and brother.
Most of Deadman Creek’s 2006 contracts came from Highways and Public Works, for snow clearing, equipment rentals and brushing and weeding land.
Total value for the publicly advertised contracts was $156,000, according to Hassard’s disclosure statements
Deadman Creek also received six publicly advertised contracts in 2005 worth $156,726, and 11 contracts in 2004 worth $136,576, four of which were sole-sourced, according to the contract registry.
Hassard’s company also received government contracts in 2003 and 2002 and earlier —before he was elected to public office.
Hassard, who is running for the Yukon Party in Porter Creek South, also did not return calls for an interview.
Economic Development minister Jim Kenyon has had three contracts through his numbered company, 9542 Yukon Ltd., for veterinarian contracts worth $5,000 in 2005, $15,000 in 2004 and $4,000 in 2003, according to Kenyon’s disclosure statements.
And Health minister Brad Cathers, who owns Cathers Wilderness Adventures with his family, received three contracts for dog-mushing familiarization tours in 2005 worth $1,000.
The Cathers’ made $2,050 from two similar contracts in 2004.
None of Cathers’ contracts can be found on the contract registry, but can be found in his disclosure statements.
Former deputy Premier Peter Jenkins also received a contract for $17,000 in 2004 to provide lodgings for government employees at the Eldorado Hotel in Dawson City.
Jenkins received another $15,000 hospitality contract this year, after he’d left the Yukon Party cabinet and caucus.
Jenkins is not running for re-election.
So Lang, Hassard, Kenyon, Cathers and Jenkins all received government contracts over the past four years.
It’s legal, and requires full disclosure to the Yukon’s conflicts commissioner. All complied.
Not one opposition MLA received a government contract over the last four years, according to disclosure statements that all MLAs must file.