DAWSON CITY – The future of the Top of the World Golf Course remains up in the air, as the territorial government seems to have put the matter on hold since the New Year.

Concerns about the lack of progress in the paperwork dealing with the land transfer that was supposed to have been nearly completed in mid-December 2011 were raised at both a local chamber of commerce meeeting and Dawson council in February.

In December, it was learned that the government had decided to write off the majority of the debt owed by the golf course, which was the property of the late Bill Hakonson.

It oped to accept the personal guarantee of $55,000 that had been offered by Hakonson and let the remaining amount, nearly $400,000, go.

In addition, the government agreed with Hakonson's wish to give the land and business to the City of Dawson, to operate as a golf course.

The town stated it would not run the facility but would find a third party to operate it.

Council gave first reading to a bylaw allowing it to own a business outside of the town's boundaries.

The legal details of the agreement between the town and YTG were to have been outlined in an appendix to the bylaw, a document to be supplied by the government.

That appendix is still missing and the bylaw is incomplete without it.

Representing both the Klondike Visitors Association (which will not be operating the golf course) and the Dawson Golf Association (which will likely be involved), Gary Parker asked Klondike MLA Sandy Silver if he could shed any light on the delay.

"I wish I could,” Silver replied at the chamber meeting. "As of the (fall 2011) sitting (of the legislature), things were a go, and since the New Year, there seems to have been a stall.”

Greg Hakonson agreed that things had looked rosy before Christmas.

"Everybody was in agreement as to the settlement, and since, it's gotten stalled with the government's lawyer.”

Hakonson said the unexplained delay is close to jeopardizing the course's coming year.

There are things that need to be done, contracts to be signed with potential staff, plans to be made and supplies to be ordered.

All of these things, he said, are time-sensitive.

February is an important time on the calendar, he said, and he was sure the government had been aware of that.

"That understanding seems to have gone out the window,” Hakonson said. "I don't know why.

"Don't know if it's him (the lawyer) or his client (the government). Our hands are tied.”

At the town council meeting two weeks later, Mayor Peter Jenkins said the golf course had been one of several topics raised with a brace of cabinet ministers, including Community Services Minister Elaine Taylor, when they had visited with council the day before.

"It's kind of like everything else,” he observed. "We spoke, she listened and what'll happen, we don't know. They're going to get back to us.

"It's time-sensitive, and we're acutely aware of the issues surrounding getting some definitive answers.