The sandbox that the government's public accounts committee has become in the past year just lost another four playmates.

In an April 9 letter obtained by the Star, public accounts committee (PAC) members and cabinet ministers Patrick Rouble, Glenn Hart and Marian Horne, as well as Yukon Party back bencher Steve Nordick, informed committee chair Arthur Mitchell they were going home.

"You and the members of your caucus ... continue to utilize the public accounts committee for partisan political purposes even after you assured us that you would not," reads the letter.

But who retains possession of the toys remains dependent on perspective.

Here's Mitchell's take:

"I think the ball is clearly in the government's members' court," said the Liberal leader. "What is apparent is the government doesn't want to be held accountable and they'll use any excuse to avoid accountability."

But Premier Dennis Fentie, who described his colleagues' departures as a caucus decision, believes the next move is Mitchell's.

"We have left the ball in his court and now it's up to him to do the right thing ... (and) not allow partisan leanings to interfere with that obligation," said Fentie. "So simply step down as chair, and we'll debate a motion to get another chair."

The committee examines the efficiency of government spending.

In March of last year, Mitchell and fellow Liberal MLA Don Inverarity attempted to resign after charging the PAC, comprised of four appointees from the Yukon Party, two from the Liberals and a lone NDP member, had become a partisan wasteland orchestrated by the premier.

They made that argument after the PAC denied Mitchell's request for a public inquiry into the government's failed $36.2-million asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) investment.

In November 2007, Auditor General Sheila Fraser agreed to Mitchell's request that she look into the failed investment.

When Fraser reported in January 2008 that the ABCP investment violated the territory's Financial Administration Act, Mitchell demanded an inquiry, which the PAC voted down.

He then responded by unofficially removing himself as committee chair, while Inverarity followed. (The legislature never recognized the pair's joint resignation as PAC members can be added or removed only with support from the legislature.)

Fast-forward a year later and Fentie has turned the tables, accusing Mitchell of similar meddling.

"Mr. Mitchell has, through his actions as chair, politicized the committee, and that's not appropriate," Fentie said.

What sparked the current impasse is a November 2007 motion by Liberal member Gary McRobb, calling for the PAC to investigate the ABCP investments. On April 8, the Kluane MLA spoke to the matter in the legislature but the motion was defeated.

While Mitchell said he can't use his role as PAC chair to instruct other members – including his own – on how to comport themselves, Fentie disagrees.

"So by chairing the public accounts committee, it therefore removes Mr. Mitchell from any complicity in that ridiculous motion?" the Premier asked.

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Mitchell is the leader of his party, his caucus, and if that's a demonstration of his leadership, thank God he's not the premier of this territory."

In the letter to Mitchell from the PAC's latest chorus of estranged members, the four indicate that Fraser's review of the ABCP affair is enough, a notion Mitchell dismisses outright.

"If we're going to say that the Auditor General investigating any issue then publishing a report is sufficient, then we shouldn't ever be holding hearings," he said. He was referencing the PAC hearings on Fraser's previous reviews of the Department of Highways and Public Works, the Canada Games Centre and, most recently, on the dire state of public education in the territory.

"The Auditor General says, ‘here are the facts,' and then PAC questions officials about what can be done to improve the situation," said Mitchell, adding that he now accepts the PAC's decision not to hold hearings into the ABCP investments.

"That's the decision, and I haven't brought it back as chair."

With no PAC meetings scheduled, it is unclear how the current situation will play out, but Mitchell said it should not delay the release of the committee's report on February hearings into Fraser's education report.