Yukon Wilderness Tourism Association vice-president Blaine Walden, who conducts tours around the Peel River canyon, above, believes most stakeholders support the proposed plan for the river's watershed. (Walden's Guiding and Outfitting)

Wilderness tour operators have joined conservation groups in condemning the Yukon government's opposition to the proposed Peel River watershed plan.

Blaine Walden, vice-president of the Wilderness Tourism Association of the Yukon and operator of Walden's Guiding and Outfitting, said the government is overstepping itself by speaking against a plan that follows years of research and public consultation.

"My question is who is the government representing in this case, because it's clear it's not the First Nations, it's not the communities, it's not most of the stakeholders and it's not the majority of the public," Walden said Wednesday.

The Yukon government said Friday that the proposed plan for the watershed is too complicated, not consistent with the Yukon First Nations Final Agreement, and doesn't offer a balanced approach to land use.

In recommendations posted online on Dec. 2, the Peel Watershed Planning Commission said 80 per cent of the Peel's watershed region should be withdrawn from any industrial development, including mineral staking. It recommends existing mineral claims be maintained in the region north of Mayo in central Yukon.

A temporary mineral staking ban in the region will be extended for another year while details of the land-use plan are worked out.

Conservation groups have already condemned the Yukon government for opposing the planning commission's recommendations.

"One thing the Yukon government has said is that the plan is too complicated and it would be too difficult to implement and I would fully disagree with that," Karen Baltgailis, executive director of the Yukon Conservation Society, said earlier this week. "I find the plan perfectly readable, perfectly understandable and perfectly followable."

Government response 'broad and vague'

The Yukon government has said it and affected First Nations will come up with a joint response to the planning commission by February.

"We want to see a variety of land uses on this land mass that will protect the economic, the social, the cultural and the environmental interests of the Yukon," Yukon Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Patrick Rouble said.

Darren Taylor, the director of national resources of the Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation, said the government's response was "broad and vague" and he hopes the government will provide more details when they meet next month.

"I think it's incumbent upon both governments to get together and throw their cards on the table so that we really understand where it is the Yukon government is coming from," Taylor said.

Walden, whose website boasts that the Peel has "no roads, no mines, no oil/gas wells, no houses," feels the government is ignoring the wishes of the people of the Yukon and trying to dictate what will happen.

"They've kind of gone back to the beginning of where we started and have pretty much dismissed all the work the commission has done, and all the hours and resources that everyone's put into it."