Yukon wants to blacklist family from owning golf course

A fight over a golf course in Dawson City, Yukon, has turned personal, according to a member of the Hakonson family.

The territorial government is trying to blacklist the entire family from ever owning the course.

Bill Hakonson had not paid a $500,000 debt to the government for years. Before he died last year, he paid off a $55,000 personal guarantee and turned the golf course over.

Now, the Yukon government wants the entire Hakonson family barred from any future involvement. Finance officials insist they are just looking out for the public interest, but son Greg Hakonson said it’s vindictive and silly.

"They're just insisting that nobody that has any trace of Hakonson blood can be involved in the golf course in any way for the next million years. And I think the City of Dawson said, ‘but you're putting the onus on us to make sure the Hakonsons aren't involved, which Hakonsons can you nail it down or give us some names’, you know?" said son Greg Hakonson.

Hakonson, a former Yukon Energy director, exposed former Premier Dennis Fentie’s secret negotiations to sell the company three years ago.

City lawyers said they don’t know how they will enforce the ban as the list includes a former son-in law, Mayor Peter Jenkins.