Over the last few weeks, Irish-based Silver Maple Developments and Ann Collins Property Ltd have been advertising the 2,800 acre exclusive "Quintessential Resort" in New Brunswick, Canada. But closer inspection of the project has led to suggestions that the developers do not yet own the land on which they are proposing to build.

The managing director of Silver Maple Developments, Declan Campbell, told the Sunday Tribune that his company does own the land in question.

"We have all our land assembled, " he said. "We have 2,500 acres, and we actually need less than that. The only dispute now is over an extra 700 acres or so that they want us to take."

However, the minister for natural resources in New Brunswick, Donald Aresneault, told Canadian media that his staff was only at the point of reviewing the request from the development company for the land exchange.

"[Silver Maple Developments] has come to our department with a couple of pieces of land that it is proposing, " he said. "On many occasions we have refused.

Not one has been satisfactory or to our liking so far."

But Campbell told the Sunday Tribune that a confidential deal had in fact been done with the government, but that neither the officials nor himself were authorised yet to speak about it publicly. "There's a big confidentiality clause around this, and we're suffering because of it, " he said. "I have in my possession a copy of the land agreement from the Department of Natural Resources. It is complete, except for the extra 758 acres."

The question of land ownership is not the only aspect of the Quintessential development that is in dispute. The resort brochure is promising Irish buyers a nearby "racino" . . . a combined race-track and casino . . . despite the fact that gambling is currently illegal in New Brunswick.

Campbell said that gaming legislation is currently going through in the province. However, the government is still months away from releasing its gaming policy, and it is not known yet whether that will include legalisation of gambling in the area.

The Quintessential brochure claims that the Poley Mountain ski resort is just 10 minutes' drive away, but local forester Matthew Steeves insists that this journey takes on average half an hour, Campbell says it takes seven minutes. The brochure offers salmon fishing, but Steeves says that much of the fishing in the area is off limits due to population crashes. Campbell says this is not true. The company offers a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, but a spokeswoman with the Nicklaus Company in Florida has said there are no signed projects in New Brunswick at this time.

Local television stations and newspapers have been giving prominence to the story, and media interest looks set to continue as the government and developers continue to make contradictory statements. "It's not the start we wanted anyway, " said Campbell. "We were going to have a big launch in a few weeks. We plan to start building in three weeks anyway."