The Yukon Party government fought the release of documents related to the buyback of its own land from Mountain View Golf Club, resulting in an independent inquiry and a months-long battle for records that eventually saw the light of day.

One of those documents suggests former premier Dennis Fentie was aware of the deal.

The arrangement saw the government quietly hand over $750,000 to Mountain View to discharge its sizable debt, provide an additional cash boost and put a 51-hectare parcel of land — leased by the course in 1997 — back in government hands.

The agreement went through on the premise Whitehorse could use the “prime location” to expand the Whistle Bend subdivision, despite the city’s stated disinterest in the lands and a feasibility study that found them largely unfit for development.

On Christmas Eve of 2013, Diane McLeod-McKay, the information and privacy commissioner, launched a review of the Community Services department over its refusal to grant access to dozens of documents requested by Jeff Luehmann, who runs Meadow Lakes Golf and Country Club — the privately owned rival to the non-profit Mountain View.

Luehmann had requested copies of “all records and information regarding land transactions ... between Government of Yukon and (Mountain View) from 1998 to present.”

Community Services extended the 30-day deadline by another month to Dec. 10, and then failed to get back to Luehmann by that date.

Territorial legislation states a failure to respond in time “is to be treated as a decision to refuse access to the record.”

McLeod-McKay’s 36-page report, released in August, found that Community Services “had no authority ... to refuse access to the records or part thereof.”

The report, released last August, noted Community Services “questioned my authority to proceed on the review.”

Copies of 52 separate records relating to the deal were eventually handed over to Luehmann.

The government had argued that the documents contained both confidential business information and personal information, like the emails of non-government employees. Releasing them would be tantamount to “an unreasonable invasion of personal privacy,” Community Services stated.

Four of the records were “letters written to Yukon Government employees and the Premier by Third Party representatives,” McLeod-McKay wrote.

Archie Lang, then minister of Community Services was looking to “help” Mountain View, according to an email chain between several top civil servants.

“I should add that I just had a call from Minister Lang’s office inquiring about ... the issue of how we could help the Golf Course,” wrote now-retired top administrator Ray Hayes to both the deputy minister and assistant deputy minister of sustainable resources at Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) in June 2010.

“The premise here is to deal with the (Mountain View) debt load,” EMR’s planning and development manager stated in a July 2010 letter to the assistant deputy minister.

That “premise” is not the one that would be presented to the public, however.

An EMR “alert” from Oct. 8, 2013 — approved by the deputy minister and prompted by questions from Luehmann — states that “suggested responses” to “public or media inquiry” read as follows: “this land was a prime location for the future expansion of the Whistle Bend residential project” and the buyback had “support from the City of Whitehorse.”

Both those assertions go against the grain of government correspondence as well as the city’s view that changes to the Whistle Bend subdivision plan seemed to “accommodate the Golf Course at the expense of the development.

“I have heard various reasons but one is clear in that it is coming from the top down,” according to a June 2010 email from a city official to the Community Services deputy minister.

“The whole thing does not make a lot of sense to me. What we have said is if changes are requested then YG should request them through City Council.”

Scott Kent, the EMR minister, and Brad Cathers, the Community Services minister, told the Star last week helping out Mountain View was no different than assisting any other non-profit and paved the way to expand Whistle Bend in the future.

“What we’ve seen with this is a case of the government of the day working to meet the express needs of Yukoners at that time,” Kent told the Star Thursday.

He recalled the heavy pressure on governments to stimulate home building in 2010, with the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce and the Yukon Real Estate Association “clamouring for developable lots around the territory.

“It’s an incredibly important piece of recreational infrastructure to this territory,” he added of the golf club.

Kent cited non-profit societies that have received last-minute financial help in the past like the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society Yukon (FASSY), the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter and the Yukon Family Literacy Centre.

Cathers noted that neither he nor Scott were cabinet members when the lease buyback occurred. Cathers had left the caucus to sit as an independent after a fallout with then-premier Fentie.

“It appears that this was done both for the purposes of installing storm water drainage system and a perimeter trail (around Whistle Bend), as well as ... funding to address (Mountain View’s) mortgage.”

Cathers added he was continuing to talk with officials to get more information on the deal.

Nowhere in the 2010-11 supplementary budget is the $750,000 buyback identifiable, though much smaller capital expenditures — adding up to $54 million and $5.5 million in Community Services and EMR, respectively — are listed.

A feasibility study from December 2010 stated less than 60 per cent of the 51-hectare parcel was suitable for development.

Even within the available 30-hectare area, “limitations” like “site servicing” via well and septic systems, among other obstacles, were noted.