Yukon not resolving Alaska border dispute: MLA

A Yukon Liberal MLA says the territorial government is doing nothing while Americans are moving in on Canadian territory off Yukon's north coast.

Don Inverarity said Premier Dennis Fentie should not make promises he cannot keep, such as his Yukon Party's promises in the 2002 and 2006 elections to resolve the border dispute on the Yukon-Alaska border.

"It was a promise that they made to voters, they would ensure that the border dispute was resolved," Inverarity said in the legislature on Tuesday.

"This government shouldn't make promises it can't keep."

Canada and the U.S. have long disagreed on an offshore boundary off the Yukon's northern coast, and are both claiming an area of the Beaufort Sea bed that's potentially rich in oil and gas resources.

Last month, the U.S. and Alaskan governments announced plans to sell oil and gas exploration leases in that disputed part of the Beaufort Sea.

On Monday, Yukon Party MLA Steve Nordick introduced a motion calling on the federal government to assert its sovereignty over the area by building a port on the Yukon's north coast, linking it by road to the Dempster Highway.

"After seven years, that is the sum total of this government's efforts — a motion asking us to study building a port," Inverarity said.

But Archie Lang, the minister responsible for lands, said the issue is not within his government's jurisdiction.

"This is a federal issue," Lang said. "It's between the government of Canada and United States, so we've been working with the federal government, prodding them."

Fentie told the legislature that much of the blame lies with the former Liberal government in Ottawa, adding that the current Conservative government is much more concerned about asserting Canada's sovereignty in the North.

But Inverarity said the Yukon Party should not have made promises on the border dispute, knowing that it's been a complicated issue spanning many years.