The territory’s opposition party is criticizing the government’s Economic Development minister for skipping out on a portion of a meeting for internal trade with federal, provincial and territorial colleagues.

That’s according to a release this morning from the Yukon Party.

It said Ranj Pillai, who also serves as deputy premier, was not in attendance for last Thursday’s meeting with other ministers.

Reached this morning, Pillai offered some clarification. He said he headed down to the Vancouver meeting last Thursday evening and was in attendance all day Friday.

He brushed off the release from the party.

“There was certainly no snub whatsoever,” Pillai told the Star of his interactions with federal minister Dominic LeBlanc. A deputy minister attended some of the earlier roundtables, Pillai added.

As a sitting MLA, “you have a number of obligations,” the minister added.

“I have to be in the legislative assembly unless there’s really key meetings from time to time,” he said.

It can be standard practice at times for deputy ministers to attend on a minister’s behalf, he noted.

While a deputy minister can do that for external meetings, it is more difficult for MLAs to be replaced in the assembly, the minister said.

Pillai explained that he was briefed on sessions he had missed out on.

In the release, Yukon Party MLA Wade Istchenko, who also serves as the critic for Economic Development, likened the missing out of the meeting to a “snub” by Pillai.

“Yukon’s trading relationships, both nationally and internationally, are important components of our economy and the Liberals need to pay more attention to them,” Istchenko said.

Pillai agreed of the significance.

There was particular focus on Indigenous procurement and working with Ottawa to ensure the environment is one that encourages First Nations development corporations’ involvement, he said.

Ultimately, the minister chalked it up to political tactics by the opposition.

“I understand the arena we all work in,” he said, noting instead that conversations about the economy and meetings is what he’d like to focus on.

Among the other things discussed were broadband connectivity and its merits to the digital economy, acknowledging that cell service is important along highway routes and rural areas (particularly for safety, a statement notes).

While he emphasized the need for continued conversations before further commitments are made with capital investment, Pillai noted how that should be spread across the country will be helped by “clear goals” that were discussed.

He likened these to a blueprint that is still being finalized.

Meanwhile, a statement out of the meeting notes that among other things, working to establish universal access of at least 50 megabits per second for a download and 10 for an upload could go a long way in improving access.

About 41 per cent of Canadians in remote and rural regions had these speeds available to them as of 2016.

The release also references the popularity of devices, noting that in 2016, the number of connected devices per Canadian sat at six and is expected to grow to 11 come 2021.

Last week’s meeting comes just about four months after the government announced that it had chosen to close the northern fibre loop by connecting Dawson City to the Northwest Territories.

To be clear: that $79-million line will see construction take about three years to complete and act as a redundancy line providing backup during service interruptions to the territory’s main line.

That main line runs up the Alaska Highway, and the Yukon government will commit about $5 million to the project. The remaining amounts are shared between the feds (up to $59 million) and Northwestel Inc. ($15 million).

While it could mean more reliable Internet to combat frequent outages, there is not a guarantee that it will change Yukoners’ bills, officials explained last June.

Meanwhile, some of the work addressed at last week’s meetings also included preparation for a similar upcoming meeting, scheduled for December.