Regina Construction III - Page 234

Nathan · #**4661** Posted **Feb 2, 2016, 1:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkydivePilot

Does anyone know what is going on at the refinery? There is a crane there that's rated at 1200-1500 tons.

I think it's part of their phased expansion no? IIRC, a while back they announced a number of capital projects over the next few years.

Udon'tknow · #**4662** Posted **Feb 2, 2016, 6:53 AM**

Viterra, Capital Pointe projects creates hive of activity at Victoria and Albert

Times are a changin’ at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Albert Street. As one century-old building receives a facelift, its kitty-corner neighbour is just getting started.

Black expects that by the end of the year, the building’s five floors of parking will be complete.
-----
Refresh for Viterra Headquarters

The crew has turned its attention to replacing the building’s windows with ones emulating the originals: Painted wood frames that are openable.

http://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/vi...-hive-of-activity-at-victoria-and-albert

Credit: LeaderPost

SkydivePilot · #**4663** Posted **Feb 2, 2016, 2:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan

I think it's part of their phased expansion no? IIRC, a while back they announced a number of capital projects over the next few years.

It must be. Whatever they're building will be big/heavy. That place just never stops - no matter what!!! Lol!

Festivus · #**4664** Posted **Feb 2, 2016, 3:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Udon'tknow

Viterra, Capital Pointe projects creates hive of activity at Victoria and Albert

Times are a changin’ at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Albert Street. As one century-old building receives a facelift, its kitty-corner neighbour is just getting started.

Black expects that by the end of the year, the building’s five floors of parking will be complete.
-----
Refresh for Viterra Headquarters

The crew has turned its attention to replacing the building’s windows with ones emulating the originals: Painted wood frames that are openable.

http://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/vi...-hive-of-activity-at-victoria-and-albert

Credit: LeaderPost

The building looks nice (Viterra), but those entrance doors have always bothered me. They are too small for the front of the building, and very plain. Would be nice to have some sort of wood or stone molding around the entrance. Obviously it's their money to spend, but the door just sticks out like a sore thumb!

scotty c · #**4665** Posted **Feb 2, 2016, 3:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Festivus

The building looks nice (Viterra), but those entrance doors have always bothered me. They are too small for the front of the building, and very plain. Would be nice to have some sort of wood or stone molding around the entrance. Obviously it's their money to spend, but the door just sticks out like a sore thumb!

When I worked there one summer in University over 10 years ago I don't think those doors on Albert street were even usable. The entrance was at the addition on the back.

Treesplease · #**4666** Posted **Feb 2, 2016, 8:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkydivePilot

It must be. Whatever they're building will be big/heavy. That place just never stops - no matter what!!! Lol!

The spreads on refining must be quite healthy. Oil prices have tumbled to almost a third of what they were yet retail gas prices are just creeping down now. But I'm sure the spring driving season or the winter demand for diesel or the alignment of pluto and mercury will be sufficient reason to jack retail prices up soon. I shudder to think what prices at the pump will be when oil does climb back up to $100/bbl.

Nathan · #**4667** Posted **Feb 2, 2016, 8:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Treesplease

The spreads on refining must be quite healthy. Oil prices have tumbled to almost a third of what they were yet retail gas prices are just creeping down now. But I'm sure the spring driving season or the winter demand for diesel or the alignment of pluto and mercury will be sufficient reason to jack retail prices up soon. I shudder to think what prices at the pump will be when oil does climb back up to $100/bbl.

Have to also keep in mind that oil is priced in $US, while our gas prices are $CDN. When oil goes back up, the exchange rate will also rise, blunting some of the impact of the increase, celestial influences notwithstanding of course.

Stormer · #**4668** Posted **Feb 2, 2016, 8:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan

Have to also keep in mind that oil is priced in $US, while our gas prices are $CDN. When oil goes back up, the exchange rate will also rise, blunting some of the impact of the increase, celestial influences notwithstanding of course.

And there are almost 30 cents in direct taxes on gas in SK. These do not go down (except the 5% GST varies with price).

Drofmab · #**4669** Posted **Feb 3, 2016, 6:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drofmab

I haven't googled to back this up, but isn't the market area a key difference between Regina or Saskatoon & Halifax? I know Sask has a million people - but neither Regina, nor Stoon can claim to be the central shopping hub for a million, nor for even half the prov's pop. Geographically, it just doesn't work.

Halifax, on the other hand, is a fairly major shopping destination for the Maritimes' 1.8million people (closer to 2.5million, if Maine & NL are included...), is it not? Or am I confusing Halifax with Saint John & Moncton (both of which would be more easily accessible to NS, PEI, NB & Maine).

Regardless - for folks in the Canadian & US Maritimes, the closest stores are in Montreal & Massachusetts (NB, NS, PEI, NL, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, upstate New York have zero Ikeas...). Montreal, Toronto & the NY-area stores would clearly pick up much of NY, VT, NH's customers, but Halifax would be more convenient to folks in Maine.

AB/SK/MB and a portions of ND & MT have a pop of about 6.8million people - and 3 IKEAs (1 store/2.3million). Adding a store in Sask would require IKEA to shift their store ratio to 1 store:1.7million. Maybe they are shifting their ratio - but I'd say Halifax has a much better argument based on being in an underserved market.

Saskatoon 'logical' place for Ikea expansion, developer says

Interesting perspective (granted, a developer isn't exactly without bias)
"The next-biggest CMAs [after Halifax] without an Ikea within reasonable driving distance: Victoria, B.C. at 345,000, followed by Saskatoon at 261,000 and Regina at 211,000."

Festivus · #**4670** Posted **Feb 3, 2016, 7:41 PM**

Looks like someone in government (possibly cabinet-level) may have been involved some illegal influence peddling, or even some other abuse of power: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchew...ian-rick-swenson-land-taxpayer-1.3422140

tl;dr: Basically, the government normally expropriates land for the bypasses. In this case, it was sold to a guy from Alberta (which looks legit, possibly), and then to a guy from Regina, and then to the GTH, each time for 2-3x markup on the old valuation. The GTH bought it at the request of the government, though no one can be found who ordered it, or why the GTH would even buy land to then give to the government, rather than have the government just expropriate it. The original expropriation price was around $11,000/acre, and eventually the GTH bought it for the government at over $105,000/acre. Then, the GTH sold it to the government for only $50,000/acre!

Looks to me like someone in government has a friend (or an interest themselves) who needed some money, so they had the land change hands a few times before the government got it for 10x the price it could have (or 3x, at later valuations). Very suspicious. If it's the way it looks, then jail time is the right answer for any minister involved.

EDIT - Interestingly, it wasn't the NDP that brought this to the attention of the media, it was the PC party! If I had to guess (and only speculation), someone in the Sask Party (or bureaucracy) found out about this and told one of their old PC colleagues, or something like that. But who knows.

EDIT 2 - Looks like Minister Bill Boyd definitely has some previous contact with individuals involved.

BrutallyDishonest2 · #**4671** Posted **Feb 4, 2016, 2:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Festivus

Looks like someone in government (possibly cabinet-level) may have been involved some illegal influence peddling, or even some other abuse of power: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchew...ian-rick-swenson-land-taxpayer-1.3422140

tl;dr: Basically, the government normally expropriates land for the bypasses. In this case, it was sold to a guy from Alberta (which looks legit, possibly), and then to a guy from Regina, and then to the GTH, each time for 2-3x markup on the old valuation. The GTH bought it at the request of the government, though no one can be found who ordered it, or why the GTH would even buy land to then give to the government, rather than have the government just expropriate it. The original expropriation price was around $11,000/acre, and eventually the GTH bought it for the government at over $105,000/acre. Then, the GTH sold it to the government for only $50,000/acre!

Looks to me like someone in government has a friend (or an interest themselves) who needed some money, so they had the land change hands a few times before the government got it for 10x the price it could have (or 3x, at later valuations). Very suspicious. If it's the way it looks, then jail time is the right answer for any minister involved.

EDIT - Interestingly, it wasn't the NDP that brought this to the attention of the media, it was the PC party! If I had to guess (and only speculation), someone in the Sask Party (or bureaucracy) found out about this and told one of their old PC colleagues, or something like that. But who knows.

EDIT 2 - Looks like Minister Bill Boyd definitely has some previous contact with individuals involved.

This is the better article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat...boyd-1.3420479

It's somewhat amazing that this is only news now considering that has been fairly well known for years.

I don't think your calculations are accurate though. The Marquart purchase was basically 1.5X Tappauf's price, then the sale to the GTH was like 1.4X that. The first sale to the last sale was basically 2X. There is no 3X or 10X anywhere because the original numbers of $9K and $11K are not sales.

Also it's pretty dangerous to level accusations ("looks to me like someone in government has a friend (or an interest themselves) who needed some money, that someone in the government itself") that politicians were actually taking a direct kickback.

And it's really irrelevant to put some big connection between developers and politicians. All the developers are connected to politicians, that's how this and every big industry functions. And it'll continue to happen once the NDP inevitably return to power.

This is all par for the course since the beginning of the GTH. Industry and government way, way, way too close.

Stormer · #**4672** Posted **Feb 4, 2016, 2:44 AM**

I don't see anything in this story that supports an allegation of wrongdoing.

BrutallyDishonest2 · #**4673** Posted **Feb 4, 2016, 2:47 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormer

I don't see anything in this story that supports an allegation of wrongdoing.

It's an election year.

Treesplease · #**4674** Posted **Feb 4, 2016, 3:35 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormer

I don't see anything in this story that supports an allegation of wrongdoing.

Now that the CBC's crack "ITeam" has uncovered these land transactions.....more like someone knocked the donut out of Jeff Leo's hand and stuck his nose in public documents that raised questions.

I don't think everything has come out on this one yet. It will be interesting to see what the "ITeam" uncovers next......

Sadly, the history of Regina and surrounding areas is littered with these sordid land dealings....usually involving provincial government over the years. And it usually goes unchecked. Land valuations are so subjective.

Festivus · #**4675** Posted **Feb 4, 2016, 4:46 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Treesplease

Now that the CBC's crack "ITeam" has uncovered these land transactions.....more like someone knocked the donut out of Jeff Leo's hand and stuck his nose in public documents that raised questions.

I don't think everything has come out on this one yet. It will be interesting to see what the "ITeam" uncovers next......

Sadly, the history of Regina and surrounding areas is littered with these sordid land dealings....usually involving provincial government over the years. And it usually goes unchecked. Land valuations are so subjective.

Well, Regina was basically founded on the idea of someone using their government authority to sell land (Dewdney), so it's part of our tradition, haha.

HomeInMyShoes · #**4676** Posted **Feb 4, 2016, 2:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Festivus

Well, Regina was basically founded on the idea of someone using their government authority to sell land (Dewdney), so it's part of our tradition, haha.

Zing.

Festivus · #**4677** Posted **Feb 4, 2016, 3:29 PM**

http://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/gl...ter-bill-boyd-threatens-cbc-legal-action

Leader-Post article on the GTH land deal. Boyd is apparently suing CBC for libel for their article. They didn't accuse him of anything openly, they merely stated the facts as they knew it (land sold for more than it was worth, some people made lots of money, some of them know and have donated money to Boyd, and it was highly unusual according to realtors and experts), so the case will go nowhere of course. In these situations it's usually best to let it blow over if you've done nothing wrong. Even if you're guilty, you just hope that they don't find any damning evidence.

Unrelated to his guilt or innocence, I find it amusing whenever politicians parade out the conflict of interest commissioner as some sort of neutral arbiter, when they almost always have no power or investigative capabilities to hold politicians to account. It's like the recent story of how many Regina city councillors haven't filled out their conflict of interest forms that they legally have to, and the people who are supposed to force them to basically say "well, no big deal."