The provincial government is challenging the Opposition to contact the Auditor General, if they think anything untoward occurred in the sale of 32 acres of Crown land in the east end of the capital city near Snow’s Lane.

Questions surrounding the recent sale to the family from whom it was originally expropriated by government more than 40 years ago, led Question Period in the House of Assembly today.

The sale, which was discovered in an Order in Council, allowed the Crosbie Group to buy the land at $5,000 an acre.

That’s considerably less than the $25,000 government paid when it was expropriated in 1982.

Half of the 32 acres in question are protected wetlands, and government argues that the land is “landlocked” and not of use to them. Transportation Minister Fred Hutton told VOCM News last week that the land was assessed and that it was sold for “fair market value.”

That didn’t set well with Opposition Leader, Tony Wakeham, but Housing Minister John Abbott, who responded in the House today, didn’t seem to think much of the questions.

“It was quoted by the Minister of Transportation that this land was ‘landlocked’ and ‘worthless,’ yet at the same time, it wasn’t that long ago that the government was looking at building a school off Snow’s Lane. So I ask the minister, does he think that this land is worthless?” Abbott responded, “Well I would suggest that the land is worth more than the value of the question being asked right now Mr. Speaker.”

Wakeham called the Crown land sale, and recent transactions involving the purchase of land at Kenmount Crossing and the $21 million, 3-year lease of the former Comfort Inn without going to tender “undefendable.”