Open letter to Premier Fentie:
Yukoners deserve a premier who will be up front and truthful with them, especially on such important matters as privatizing the management and possibly ownership of their publicly owned utility.
Your repeated denial of this matter is in total contradiction of reported comments from two key individuals with the two separate entities directly involved: Willard Phelps, former chair of the publicly owned Yukon Energy Corporation, and Jerome Babyn, general manager of the privately owned Yukon Electrical Company Limited.
A letter from several Yukon Energy employees has further substantiated your secretive approach to privatizing the publicly owned power company.
They also believe you have an obligation to be open and honest with all Yukoners and especially to the families of employees who would lose their jobs in our territory.
The court of public opinion has now heard from all of the key witnesses in this matter.
You have remained in vehement denial while every single other person has testified against you.
Yukoners have no choice about who to believe about your government’s covert plan to privatize their largest asset. The verdict is in. Imagine that.
Earlier, we asked you to immediately cease and desist with this secret agenda until voters have expressed themselves in the next territorial election.
Yukon Energy employees have since requested you to meet with them to explain your actions, rationale and plans for the future of the company. They have also urged Yukoners to contact their MLAs and voice their concerns publicly.
YEC employees and other Yukoners deserve nothing less than an open and frank discussion with their premier on this secret privatization scheme.
In conclusion, will you now call a public meeting on this matter to allow all interested Yukoners the opportunity to question you and YEC Minister Jim Kenyon?
Gary McRobb, energy critic
Official Opposition Liberal Caucus