Dishonesty, hidden costs taint Wall's big GTH dreams
Murray Mandryk Murray Mandryk
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Published on: April 25, 2017 | Last Updated: April 25, 2017 6:38 AM CST
The Global Transportation Hub wasn’t supposed to be this way.
When the newly minted Saskatchewan Party simply referred to it as “intermodal facility” or “inland port,” the GTH was to be Premier Brad Wall’s shiny seal of approval for his new Saskatchewan. And the buy-in was enormous.
“The most significant project ever seen in southern Saskatchewan is the Regina Inland Port and multi-modal facility,” gushed Regina mayor Pat Fiacco in December 2008, at what was then known as the Canadian Pacific Railway’s intermodal facility.
The former Regina mayor was certainly one to gush, but one could hardly fault his enthusiasm. Getting CP’s container yard out of the middle of the city was — and still is — a very big deal.
Redeveloping those 20 acres of CP land would “tie in perfectly with the revitalization of downtown” said Fiacco, citing back in 2008 not only the possibility of a $500-million permanent domed football stadium (perhaps on the CP site), but also how getting the CP yards out of the Regina downtown was a perfect fit with the new Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) head office and bus terminal. Uh huh.
And an inland port where the CPR mainline, Soo Line, the Trans-Canada Highway and Highways 6 and 11 meet made sense for the whole province. It seemed to make even more sense in July 2008, when Loblaw Companies announced its GTH plans for a $350-million, one-million-square-foot distribution facility that would employ 750 people by 2010 and 1,500 by now.
“It’s a game-changer for us,” said Wall at the 2011 CP intermodal/GTH sod-turning announcement, calling the GTH “one of the most important economic development projects for, I think, generations.” Saskatchewanians should ready themselves for more good-news announcements at the GTH, Wall said.
But that was before GTH private-tenant deals like the one with Kal Tire fell through.
That was before Wall’s government started pumping more and more dollars into the project while simultaneously ordering Crown corporations to backfill otherwise unoccupied GTH space.
Perhaps there is some logic in the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority needing GTH distribution space. However, what’s the viable explanation for why SaskPower, suddenly in 2013, desperately needed $25 million worth of GTH land that the electricity utility now says it is unlikely to develop? Coincidentally, the deal was done about the time then-SaskPower and GTH minister Bill Boyd had to ensure the GTH had enough cash to cover the GTH’s cost of purchasing 204 acres at $103,000 an acre.
Ah, yes, all this was before the GTH became synonymous with that now rather nefarious $21-million land purchase — a vast overpayment, says provincial auditor Judy Ferguson, that made political and business associates of Boyd and the Sask. Party $6 million and $5 million, respectively.
Wall has vehemently defended all this, disingenuously arguing GTH land is worth as much as $220,000 an acre.
Well, that depends on who you are. Sometimes, GTH land is worth nothing.
The CBC’s Geoff Leo has revealed a confidential document showing the Ministry of Highways agreed to provide CP with 300 acres of serviced, GTH land “at no cost to CP and free and clear of all encumbrance … in consideration of CP’s contribution to the project.”
Even though the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner has said it should do so, the Wall government has refused to release the above information in its eight-year-old, 2009 contract with CP now detailed by the CBC. It has cited CP’s confidentiality,
Yes, taxpayers. In our finest 125-year-Canadian tradition, you have gifted the CPR with more free land — $66 million worth, if you use Wall’s estimate of $220,000 an acre. (CP already got $7.5 million for selling its downtown land to the City of Regina). And his government wasn’t going to bother to tell you?
Admittedly, one wouldn’t expect CP to relocate for nothing. Moreover, GTH’s inland port/intermodal facility concept remains a solid concept. Who knows?
Maybe one day it will all pay for itself.
But right now, Wall’s big GTH dream is tainted with scandal, dishonesty and failure to disclose.
Murray Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post.
mmandryk@leaderpost.com
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