Yukon's awash with cash from surpluses

Financial figures released by the Yukon government this week show it's sitting on $269-million in finances.

The territory's well-endowed bank account the result of five successive years of surpluses makes the Yukon one of only two jurisdictions in Canada, next to Alberta, claiming a surplus this year, Premier Dennis Fentie said in a release.

"Not only are we sitting in probably one of the healthiest financial positions in the history of the Yukon, we've also brought forward successive record budgets investing in Yukon's future," Fentietold CBC News on Thursday.

When asked how he plans to spend the money, Fentie replied: "I think the best way to answer the question is by responding by what we are not going to do. We're not going to, through needless spending today, mortgage Yukon's future."

Deputy finance minister David Hrycan said about $135 million, or half the total amount, is government surplus, while the rest belongs to government corporations such as the Whitehorse General Hospital, Yukon College and the Yukon Development Corp.

Hrycan warned that some of that surplus will disappear as early as this year, due in part to a number of projects the government wants to fund.

"Let's put it this way: we do have a lot of cash in the bank. Is that going to stay forever? Well, the current forecasting [calls for] a deficit for the year of roughly $15 million," Hrycan said.

"As well, the government is committed to increasing money to municipalities, $31 million to the Robert Campbell Highway, another $10 million for the transmission line to connect the grid. So those big commitments, of course, are going to have an effect on our financial resources in the longer run."