The Yukon's opposition politicians are accusing the government of ignoring fair practice by hand-picking new board members for the Yukon Energy Corp.

Liberal and NDP critics say the Yukon Party government filled four empty board positions with Yukon Energy, part of the government's Yukon Development Corp., without publicly announcing the openings as usual.

"It appears that the process used to solicit the four candidates wasn't a public process. There was no advertising done," NDP MLA Steve Cardiff told CBC News on Monday.

The four board seats were vacated in June by directors including then chairman Willard Phelps who protested Premier Dennis Fentie's secret talks about merging the public energy utility with ATCO, a private Alberta company.

Cardiff said an all-party committee would normally select new board members based on a list of multiple names it can choose from. But in this case, only four names were offered to fill the four empty seats, he said.

"I'm not questioning the qualifications of the people who have put their name forward, but I think that the people of the Yukon expect and I think they deserve greater transparency in this process, given what's transpired at YEC and YDC," Cardiff said.

Liberal MLA Don Inverarity said Fentie's government needs to be more transparent, especially given the legislature is about to begin its fall session this week.

"I think it's the same old business," Inverarity said.

"We're going to continue to not get answers in the house, we're going to continue to be kept uninformed, and they're going to continue to do things behind the public's back."

The controversy surrounding the Yukon Energy talks prompted Brad Cathers, who was then part of Fentie's cabinet, to quit the government caucus and sit as an Independent MLA.

Calls to Fentie's cabinet office about the board selections were not returned on Monday. The fall legislative session begins Thursday.