Laurie Pushor's appointment will not help restore AER’s scandalized reputation: MLAs Jennie Russell, Charles Rusnell · CBC News · Posted: Apr 06, 2020 7:00 AM MT | Last Updated: April 6The involvement of Laurie Pushor in the Saskatchewan scandal should disqualify him from his new position as CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator, opposition critics say. (Government of Saskatchewan)The newly-appointed chief executive officer of the Alberta Energy Regulator was a central figure in a Saskatchewan government land-deal scandal that cost taxpayers millions of dollars, was the subject of a scathing audit, and prompted an RCMP investigation. The cloud of doubt that still hangs over Laurie Pushor's involvement in the Saskatchewan scandal should have disqualified him from the position, opposition critics in both provinces say.And they say Pushor's past will make it difficult for the AER to restore its own reputation, which was seriously undermined in a much-publicized scandal involving self-dealing and lavish expenses by some of its now-former senior managers.'I was quite surprised to see that announcement the other day because I think Laurie Pushor's history here in Saskatchewan still has a lot of clouds of uncertainty and doubt hanging over it,' Saskatchewan Opposition NDP MLA Cathy Sproule said.'If you want to restore the transparency and the reputation of a regulator like the AER, I would think there are several other people in this country who would be much more qualified, with much more experience, that would be able to do the job very well,' said Sproule, who is her party's house leader and critic for the land-deal scandal.Alberta NDP energy critic Irfan Sabir said Pushor is clearly not the right person to lead the AER, especially as the organization tries to reform its governance and rehabilitate its image, while the industry is in crisis due to free-falling oil prices. 'This person brings baggage of his own, and the AER will have to spend time defending this person, defending their choice,' which he said will detract from the vital work that needs to be done now.Last week, the regulator announced that after a 'thorough and exhaustive competition,' it had appointed Pushor.Pushor was a central figure in a years-long Saskatchewan controversy involving the province-owned Global Transportation Hub (GTH).CBC News revealed that in 2014, the GTH bought 204 acres of land from a Regina developer for far more than its appraised value. That resulted in a $5-million profit for the developer's company. A few days later, the GTH sold some of that land to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways for less than half the price it had paid.As senior adviser to then-GTH minister Bill Boyd, Pushor negotiated the initial land deal with the Regina developer, who was a supporter of the ruling Saskatchewan Party.No charges after police investigationAs CBC News in Saskatchewan produced revelation after revelation, the GTH scandal roiled the legislature and the province for months.Boyd defended the deal by saying land prices in the area were increasing at the time and acquiring the land was critical for a planned highway bypass. But a 2016 report by Saskatchewan's provincial auditor confirmed the GTH had paid too much for the land and failed to have appropriate policies in place. The auditor found no evidence of fraud, wrongdoing, or conflict of interest within the organization, although the scope of the audit did not allow her to interview the developer or any other third parties, Sproule said.The RCMP began a criminal investigation of the land deals in February 2016, the same month CBC News published its initial report. Two years later, the RCMP announced that it and the Manitoba prosecutors reviewing the file had determined no criminal charges should be laid. Pushor left his position as Boyd's adviser in 2014 and immediately became Boyd's assistant deputy minister and then deputy minister of the economy. In March 2018 Pushor became deputy minister for energy and resources, a position he held until recently.The ruling Saskatchewan Party repeatedly blocked opposition attempts to call Pushor and others to testify before the province's public accounts committee about their roles in the scandal.Sproule, a former federal government lawyer, said the only way the full truth will be known is if the Saskatchewan NDP regain power because they would immediately hold a judicial inquiry.The AER declined both an interview request to its board chair and to Pushor. 'With regard to the GTH land deal, Mr. Pushor made the AER aware of the matter, and we are satisfied that a thorough investigation exonerated Mr. Pushor from any wrongdoing. We consider the matter closed,' an AER spokesperson said in an emailed statement.'The recruiting process for Mr. Pushor's position was led by interim Chair Bev Yee, during the interim board's tenure. The AER Board is responsible for hiring the AER's CEO subject to the approval of the Minister of Energy and Minister of Environment and Parks.'Pushor starts as CEO on April 15.Recent scandals at AERThe AER faced its own troubling scandal last year, well documented by reports issued in October 2019 by three provincial watchdogs: the auditor general, the public interest commissioner and the ethics commissioner.The reports concluded the AER wrongfully used its resources to establish another company outside its mandate, while former CEO Jim Ellis displayed 'reckless and wilful disregard' for the proper management of public funds.The independent commissioners determined the AER's board oversaw a regulator whose executives flew first class and stayed at $500-a-night hotels, plotted how to privatize the province's intellectual property, and spent millions of public dollars on a private venture in order to secure their future employment.A separate review by Alberta's auditor general confirmed, as first reported by CBC News, that Ellis and another senior AER executive commuted from their homes in British Columbia under work arrangements that were not properly approved and cost tens of thousands of dollars.Ellis also knowingly broke provincial compensation law by handing cash bonuses of $21,000 to two senior executives, the audit found.In some instances, the AER board knew of the behaviour and allowed it to happen, while at other times it was completely unaware of activities. Board members not only failed to provide oversight, they often didn't even question senior leadership.On Wednesday, less than a week after Pushor's appointment was announced, the UCP government said it had named seven new board members to 'bring a steady hand to the AER during these unprecedented economic times.'Critic questions new CEO's experienceBoth Sproule and Sabir question whether Pushor has the experience to lead the AER, given his relatively brief stint as Saskatchewan's deputy minister of energy.'I think any responsible board would have found someone with more qualifications and less scandal associated with his name,' Sproule said.Sabir also noted Pushor's paucity of oil-industry-related experience.'Quite frankly, it is disrespectful to Albertans that they wouldn't be able to find a person more qualified within Alberta to lead our energy sector [regulator.]'If you have information for this story, or information for another story, please contact us in confidence at document.write(''+'cbcinvestigates'+'@'+'cbc'+'.'+'ca.'+'');
Dear MLA Christine Tell,My name is Nestor Mryglod. I am a Principal owner of Super Seamless of Canada. I am writing to communicate concerns regarding the impact the new Highway #1 Regina Bypass project has had upon our business along with several other land owners adjacent to this new infrastructure. The following is a summary of the events which have prompted me to forward this letter and to publish it in an open public forum.In 2005 our company purchased an 11-acre tract of land alongside the Highway No.1 South Service Road adjacent to Tower Road. The city approved our plan and we began our expansion to construct a 200,000 square foot manufacturing plant on this site in 2010. We were aware that someday the Regina Bypass would be built on Tower Road as the ratified plans for the future bypass were available for inspection and those approved plans had been shown to us by the RM of Sherwood at the time we applied for our building permits. At the time we applied for permits to build on our site, we were assured that accepted practice regarding the approval of any changes would likely take several months if not years to implement. Our building plans were approved and we proceeded to order 2 pre-engineered buildings as per those approved plans.Traditionally, any potential changes were said to be subject to review by the planning departments of the R.M. of Sherwood, the City of Regina, and the Department of Highways. These approvals of our plans only reinforced our impression that no major changes to the Regina Bypass plan would be implemented in the areas for which these permits had been issued.Furthermore, we had been assured that no major changes were anticipated or even likely to be endorsed. We had been told that this plan had evolved after many years of engineering functional studies so we had no reason to believe or even suspect that such plans could be changed literally overnight. Sadly, we would be in for an unpleasant surprise.It was not until June of 2013 at a public open forum that we were made aware of a new ‘preferred plan’ for the Highway #1 Regina Bypass. The consultation process with potentially affected landowners in the path of these proposed changes had not taken place or even been facilitated. It was apparent that something (or someone) had succeeded in influencing to city to adopt changes to the existing plan with little if any attempts made to provide opportunity for feedback or the sharing of concerns from many landowners who would be affected by these changes. It was clearly apparent that these proposed changes would have significant negative impact on many owners, ourselves being a prime example.Only much later did we learn about ‘closed meetings’ which were held earlier in May of 2013 (one month prior to the public forum mentioned above) between the Government of Saskatchewan, the City of Regina, the RM of Sherwood, and major developers along Tower Road. It was at these meetings that a revised plan requiring the relocation of the eastern terminal of the new Regina Bypass 400 meters east of its originally proposed location on Tower Road.For our company this proposal resulted in several major points of contention.Our building project would have to be suspended as part of our property was directly in the path of the revised plan. This dictated that we no longer owned sufficient land to complete our expansion at that location. As a result, we were forced to abandon construction in midstream which had the effect of destroying the value of the capital investments we had made thus far. We suffered as a result of these dramatic effects in several ways. In the process of attempting to intervene in the implementation of this revised plan, we suffered the loss of our office administrator who experienced a massive stroke which we directly attribute to the stress brought about by this situation. Unlike a typical employee, she was a family member who had invested a major part of her life savings in our company and therefore had a vested interest in its success and survival. We could not afford to relocate to an equally accessible property without significantly more compensation than we were eventually offered. The increased employment potential that our expansion project would produce would now be forfeited. These were the factors which directly affected us, but there was another important factor that had an indirect but equally significant impact on other businesses and the city itself; The revised plan eliminated the possibility for a northern leg for the Regina Bypass. The revised plans had no provision for relieving the existing infrastructure in east Regina which was already overwhelmed by the traffic using the ring road and city streets in that part of the city. Many had been long-time advocates for this component due to the highest volume of westbound freight traffic entering Regina being destined for the commercial / industrial sectors in the northeast quadrant of the city.I want to clearly communicate what is at stake for us and others as a result of the New Regina Bypass location being arbitrarily imposed upon those whose livelihoods and futures have been severely impacted.Referring to point #4 above, we have learned that other land owners who had similar properties were offered exponentially larger amounts for their landholdings. Our research has revealed multiple instances of disproportionately higher values being paid to others whose land was similarly situated. These facts raise a number of questions as to the motives and beneficiaries behind the revised Regina Bypass plans.I will remind you that I contacted you in 2014 when we discovered the implications of the newly revised Regina Bypass Plan. We also sent letters to Premier Brad Wall and Highways Minister Don McMorris at the time questioning the rationale for the proposed changes. The only explanation we were offered was that it was the engineers who decided where the Regina Bypass would go.This prompted us to enquire with senior Highways engineers, and in documented and recorded conversations, these same engineers said that they did not agree with the relocation plan and that in their opinion it had been the developers who influenced the changes.We continued to work to uncover the truth behind these contradictory positions. We learned that many issues were in need of explanation. For example, our research revealed that Long Lake Investments’ Principal Murad Al-Katib, had purchased 500 acres of land along Tower Road in 2012. At that time, in 2011 Mr. Al-Katib was a director on the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission along with Mayor Pat Fiaco. In 2012 Mr. Al-Katib was again director of this organization with Mayor Michael Fougere.Mr. Al-Katib was able to purchase these 500 acres for $12,125.00/acre totalling $6 million dollars. A short time later, Mr. Al-Katib sold back 128 of those acres to the same government. His company received seven times more than was paid for the property resulting in a landfall profit of $8.4 million. Long Lake Investments now has 372 extra acres with effectively no cost that are now for sale for $375,000/acre. This represents a 3300% profit derived from transactions that have been orchestrated by a civic employee who is in partnership with the investors.To clarify, it is obvious that Mr. Al Katib could not have financed these transactions on the wages he collected as a public service employee. He would have needed backing from elsewhere which we understand was supplied by foreign investors. We are not disputing the premise that intelligent ideas for economic development are beneficial, especially when they attract outside investment in our province. We do however question the lack of transparency in these negotiations when they are done using taxpayer’s money resulting in a windfall for a public servant who has greatly benefited. When one factors in the last minute revisions to the Regina Bypass project that resulted in this windfall, the optics are poor to say the least. This is aggravated by the fact that other land transactions on both sides of the city appear to be tainted with similar misuse of privileged information by those in trusted public offices.If nothing else, as taxpayers we should be entitled to a full disclosure of the circumstances surrounding these and other transactions related to this project. The new Regina Bypass represents the largest infrastructure investment this province has ever made and as such represents a financial commitment that appears to have been mismanaged on several levels.Our research clearly revealed other examples of exploding values associated with land acquisitions surrounding the Bypass. These transactions took place suspiciously soon after they were purchased. These purchases were initially made by those with close ties to elected officials, at least two of which resigned their public offices soon after these properties were purchased. Questions arise when these transactions were completed by the very same government agencies which these elected officials were responsible to oversee.We discovered that Harvard Developments had purchased 141 acres of land right on the corner of Tower Road and Highway No.1 from Gulf Flying J in 2012. We learned that Gulf Flying J had previously tried to get approval to build a truck stop at this location but were repeatedly told by the city that there were no plans to provide infrastructure in that area for what could amount to another 25 years or more. Based on the city’s communication Gulf Flying J chose to sell the property to Harvard Developments. Shortly thereafter, the newly completed Aurora Retail development now sits on fully serviced facilities 20 years ahead of schedule.This is yet another example of how official policy appears to have been influenced without consideration for due process or appropriate communication. City officials failed to provide adequate notice of intent to others who would be affected by these last minute changes. The notice that was provided communicated what was apparently that of a ‘fait accomplee’.The decisions had already been made.This would support the comments earlier referenced from the senior Department of Highways engineers that the major influencers for last minute revisions came from the developers. This is an inconvenient truth as it directly contradicts the official line given to the public when the city administration was questioned on this matter. It became increasingly frustrating to get clear and transparent communication from any official source responsible for the Regina Bypass project. As a result we are not alone in having depended on what was represented as ‘highly unlikely to change’ as a factor in determining future plans and major investment decisions. We feel we have been misled and manipulated by those whose influence is greater and whose interests are being served at our expense.What about alternative solutions?We spoke with Brandt Developments about the location of the Regina Bypass. They told us that they had met with the government in 2013 when they discovered that their access would be impacted with the Regina Bypass long Tower Road. They took a plan to the government to move the Regina Bypass to Gravel Pit Road outside the City. This plan would have placed the Regina Bypass right beside your families land holdings. They included in their plan the estimated costing to move the Regina Bypass that would have saved Saskatchewan taxpayers 25% of $100 million back in 2012 when the Regina Bypass had a price tag of only $400 million. For reasons that only became clear later, this proposal was never acted upon. When we questioned the owner of Brandt about the status of his alternative plan, he indicated to us that the proposal had been shelved and that he had made his own dea. It should be noted that Brandt at one point had threatened to relocate outside the province in response to the proposed changes. We are only left to speculate about the concessions that must have been given to Brandt that resulted in a reversal of his position. “Business in the park” comes to mind as a project that was later the subject of some controversy.At one point the government seemed to be in favor of the Gravel Pit Road alternative and was advocating its consideration. For some reason this dialogue ceased and was never part of the agenda in open public forums. We contend that those open forums were not well publicized in the first place.It remains a point of contention that the efforts to notify those stakeholders that would be affected by these changes were at best only partly effective. We can only speculate that this alternative was unpalatable to others who would be negatively affected by it. This would be potentially true in the case of the Tell family holdings, and we can readily identify with those kind of concerns. It is apparent that some dialogue must have taken place among the stakeholders in this area, but that dialogue was never part of the public record.It is obvious to those who have followed the events surrounding this project that a compromise was needed with Brandt to ensure they would remain in Regina. We agree that Brandt is a valuable asset to our local economy and should be fairly accommodated. It would appear that Brandt has had their concerns addressed and the precedent has been established to facilitate a valued employer in our province.We wonder however, why the same principles have not been applied in dealing with other companies who also contribute to the economic diversity and growth of our community? While we do not have the same footprint as a Brandt or a Cindercrete, we still represent a viable business with growth potential that has suffered a disproportionate impact on the future of our business and the additional employment that we had planned to provide as a result of these changes to the original plans.We started our own investigations, talking to stakeholders, doing research, and writing letters to the government. We soon discovered that no one agreed with the location of the Regina Bypass. Harvard Developments and Long Lake Investments who had purchased 640 acres of land along Tower Road appeared to be the only companies that had no objections to these revised plans. The fact that two subsequent Regina mayors also appeared to have close associations with one of these companies does nothing to dispel concerns of collusion among civic officials and prominent developers.Eighty percent of the land required for the Regina Bypass was located in the RM of Sherwood. The RM strongly objected to the location of the Regina Bypass and thought the process was flawed as the stakeholders were not involved in the discussions. The RM tried to organize a meeting of all of the stakeholders in the RM that would be impacted by the Regina Bypass. Just before this meeting was to take place, suddenly the Reeve, Kevin Eberly, was fired and there was a probe into his conflict of interest, this probe turned into a closed inquiry. During this time, an interim Reeve, Neil Robertson, was appointed as legal counsel for the City of Regina. This represented another potential conflict of interest resulting in no consensus being achieved through any public forum.To further add to the list of inconsistencies, another unusual land transaction occurred close to the town of White City. In 2011 the Government of Saskatchewan sold 7.45 acres at the intersection of Highway #1 and #48 to Mauri Gwyn Developments for $20,000 per Acre. This land had been owned by Highways for decades, and was effectively useless land, given the location. In 2015, the government repurchased 2.45 acres of this property back from Mr. Gwynn, and paid a whopping $400,000 per acre, or 20 times more than they had sold the land for a few years prior.This raises questions for any taxpayer whose funds are being used to finance these transactions. It should be noted that land right across the highway was expropriated for a significantly lower value, between 15 and 25 times less per acre!The questions that beg to be answered are clear. Why is there such discrepancy in land prices when dealing with our various levels of government? ..and ..Where is the accountability to the taxpayers whose funds are being used to make these purchases?At this point I have confined my comments to the issues arising on the east side of the city. Our research shows that similar inconsistencies are evident at the opposite end of this project surrounding the GTH.Most people are aware that the GTH has has been the focus of controversy and potential scandal for years. In the beginning, the Department of Highways needed 54 acres of land for the section of the Regina Bypass that would be constructed alongside the GTH. The government could have exercised their prerogative to expropriate the land needed at the time from the original owners for $5,750 an acre which was the market value based on what similar lands were being expropriated for at the time. Instead, the government ended up paying $103,000 per acre for this land.The most troubling aspect of this land purchase exists with its history of ownership. Two prior transactions took place shortly before these properties were purchased by the provincial government. Mr. Robert Tappauf, a land buyer from Alberta acquired property which would soon become essential to the Regina Bypass project. Mr. Tappauf made an offer to purchase, and then flipped the land overnight directly to another land developer, Mr. Anthony Marquart netting around $6 million profit. Mr. Marquart in turn resold 204 acres to our provincial government for an additional profit of $5 million.It has been noted that Mr. Tappauf rents over 2200 acres of land to Bill Boyd, the former Deputy Premier and the Minister responsible for the GTH at the time. One cannot help but speculate as to how the information about the future Regina Bypass plan was being handled and by whom?Mr. Marquart was offered 20 times more than other landowners in the areas along Highway No.1 and Pinkie Road. The same government agencies who paid Mr. Marquart had offered other land owners in the area amounts based on the appraised values they had established for these properties. Those values were significantly lower than what had been paid to Mr. Marquart. When these land owners wouldn’t accept the lesser offers their land was then expropriated. Something is wrong with this picture.It is a matter of public record that Premier Wall, eventually signed an Order in Council to pay over $21 million for this land on February 27, 2014. When using the value of the land expropriated from the landowners along Pinkie Road and Highway No.1, the 54 acres of land needed for the Regina Bypass should have been worth approximately $315,000. This would imply that the government was somehow manipulated into overpaying about $21 million for this property. Sadly, the landowners along Highway No.1 and Pinkie Road have been forced into legal actions to try to get more than $5,750 an acre, and will inevitably spend years in court. Regardless of the outcome, which is uncertain at best for these land owners, there is likely to be an increased cost to the taxpayer for the legal actions that have resulted from this debacle.Furthermore, when called upon to address these very serious concerns, the Premier’s office decided that it would be best to call for a Process Audit, rather than a Forensic Audit, or an RCMP investigation.Presumably, it should be well known that process audits would only confirm that all of the T’s were crossed and all the I’s were dotted. They do nothing to expose any malfeasance or collusion among those who had access to privileged information or who might influence the planning and development process without public discussion and consultation.We took our information to the RCMP when they were conducting their investigation into the GTH. In September 2018, the RCMP reported that in consultation with Manitoba Prosecution Services, they had completed their investigation of the land dealings in and around the GTH. The investigation spanned two and a half years and dedicated 7500 hours.They stated that all of the information they relied on was freely provided to them, and that their investigation never met the threshold to subpoena evidence. As such, it was recommended that no criminal charges be laid.One cannot help but wonder what their mandate for the investigation was? Only reviewing records of land transactions which were freely provided by those involved does not necessarily shed light on the events leading up to those transactions.Our last line of defense is the RMCP who are supposed to be an independent body protecting the rights of citizens in our country and enforce the laws. They closed the file and didn't even look at the Tower Road and White City land scandals. The RCMP investigation that was completed only on the GTH land transactions has left many wondering how the RCMP could close the file on something that appears to be so blatantly wrong?When Gord Wyant was campaigning for Premier of Saskatchewan, he promised to call for a Public Inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub land transactions regardless of the RCMP’s decision not to press any charges. He is on record as stating; “We need it to shine a very, very bright light on this and the only way to do that is to give the commissioner the power that he needs not only to compel witnesses, documents and testimonies but to make some findings so that we can put this whole thing behind us as a party.” He went on to say: “There are unanswered questions for me. I am a citizen of this province and weather I am a member of the government or not there are some troubling things about this. At the end of the day we need to clear the air so that the people are made comfortable with what happened.”To date, (almost two years later) no further comments from Mr. Wyant have been made. Anyone following this string of events finds this to be compelling evidence that any further investigations into these matters has been suppressed. The only comments that have been offered have been to dismiss the entire subject as having no substance based on the RCMP’s implied exoneration of the participants. We have repeatedly been told that “there is no smoking gun”. While that phrase suggests that there is nothing wrong, it fails to acknowledge that there have been serious wounds inflicted on several individuals and on our public purse. While no ‘smoking gun’ was discovered, there is still ‘blood on the ground’ emanating from the unfair and inconsistent treatment that many have received.A company from France, Vinci, is responsible for building the Regina Bypass. The Regina Bypass is a P3 Project that was tendered out to 3 contractors, , Vinci, SNC-Lavalin and Hochtief-AECOM. Vinci won the bidding for the general construction contract and 30-year maintenance of the project. Vinci has been linked to scandals across Europe including money laundering, bribery, and human rights violations. With recent revelations regarding SNC-Lavalin, we’re not sure if we are giving the lesser of two evils our hard-earned tax dollars.Are our legislators unable to see the obvious ethical questions that might arise surrounding their decisions when awarding these multimillion dollar contracts?The question that everyone asks is; Why the Government of Saskatchewan did not use Saskatchewan road and bridge builders to build the Regina Bypass? Apparently, even though we now have some parts of this new infrastructure that cannot accommodate farm machinery or some over-sized transports, we are assured that the decision to award this project to a foreign company was in our best interests. We can only hope that the reasons for this would pass closer scrutiny in light of all the controversy surrounding other aspects of this project. Sadly, we have seen some local contractors in the industry close their doors in recent months. Many would agree that our current economic climate is volatile enough without exporting our resources such as tax revenue and jobs outside the province of Saskatchewan.The 2017 budget saw crown corporations being sold off, essential government services cut, the shutdown of STC, and an increase to the PST. Not only was it raised to 6%, it was also imposed on the construction and service industries. These were sectors that were already forced to adjust to new regulations imposed by Ottawa.The resulting impact on the local economy has been devastating. It has become far more difficult for first-time home buyers to qualify for a mortgage. The resulting effect has been immediate and painful. Nearly every contractor and supplier has been forced to lay off employees and scale back their operations. For sale or lease signs have proliferated in our commercial / industrial sector at an unprecedented rate. Finally, we now have a federally imposed carbon tax which has added to the cost of every household’s operation. In short, the economic climate in this province is experiencing severe stress.This hightens concerns surrounding the cost of the Regina Bypass being a contributing factor to our present provincial debt. The cost of the Regina Bypass exploded from $63 million in 2007, to $400 million in 2012, then $800 million, then $1.2 billion and finally ended at greater than $2 billion. These costs still do not include the price of land acquisitions! While we have heard attempts to justify these cost increases with the argument that the scope of the Bypass has expanded over the years, it does not negate the fact that these are valued tax dollars that were siphoned from the treasury resulting in many other needed items becoming axed with the 2017 budget.The ‘scope’ of the Regina Bypass has always been to provide an alternative route around Regina for through travelers in order to alleviate congestion, and improve safety along Victoria Avenue and Highway No.1 East. Ironically, the project envisioned in 2007 for $400 Million would have done just that. As it expanded, however, the scope appears to have morphed into an economic development opportunity, and is far less about providing a safe and cost-effective alternative route around the City of Regina for today’s west-bound traffic entering the city. Most of this traffic is destined for locations in the northeast commercial/industrial areas of Regina en route to Saskatoon and Edmonton.At this time and for the foreseeable future, westbound traffic beyond Regina continues to be less than northbound traffic entering the city. Further aggravating this situation is the failure of the GTH infrastructure on the west side of the city to gain traction and attract the industrial clientele we were promised would appear. No doubt this area is designed to accommodate industrial and commercial expansion but at this point that is likely to be many years from now, if at all.Public perception is important. When one considers the observations above, many questions arise concerning the credibility of the communications (or lack thereof) that have emanated from our current legislators. When no answers are being offered that address these specific concerns, it paints a picture of either deliberate ignorance or a conscious intention to bury these facts from taxpayers and hide behind the rhetoric of ‘no smoking gun’ as is often repeated. It appears that the priorities of expenditures have been heavily influenced by plans to accommodate developers and land speculators while ignoring the more immediate and practical needs of many existing businesses in our community. The lack of willingness to engage and communicate on the part of our elected officials only fuels the fires of skepticism.Please indulge me while I provide some useful information. A comparison has been made between another recent major infrastructure project in western Canada and the new Regina Bypass. The Coquihalla Highway in B. C. was the largest highway project ever undertaken in North America at the time it was built. It was completed with a cost of $848 million in 1990.If we adjust for inflation, today’s price would be $1.68 billion. This project spanned 20 months and was built through mountains, caverns and rivers in three phases over 324 kilometers in length. It included 20,000 tons of steel, 125,000 tons of concrete, 160 kilometers of guard rail, 38 bridges, 18 interchanges, and 19 overpasses. Engineers had to clear and strip 1700 hectares of land, remove 2 million truckloads of overburden and nearly 4 million tonnes of gravel. Over one million tons of asphalt had to be crushed and graded.Pipelines and railroads needed to be crossed and relocated more than 50 times. Reinforced earth walls were built to retain sections of roadbed and river diversions were designed and implemented to improve fish habitats, deflect flood torrents and protect against avalanches, none of which are concerns in Saskatchewan. This enormous project employed 10,600 people directly and created 16,000 spin-off jobs.In comparison, the Regina Bypass was built on flat prairie land and required no rock blasting, not having to fill valleys or reinforce earth walls, no river systems had to be manipulated and rebuilt. This project is much smaller in scope and difficulty than the Coquihalla Highway. The Regina Bypass includes 12 overpasses, 40 kilometers of new highway, 20 kilometers of resurfaced highway, 55 kilometers of service roads and twinning about 5 kilometers of highway No.6. How is it that the Regina Bypass, a project that is less than the shadow of the Coquihalla cost over $2 Billion Dollars?The standard argument in defense of this cost is the nature of the P3 component of maintenance for the next 30 years. While this stipulation appears reasonable from one perspective, it fails to disclose the real costs of each component of the overall price taxpayers are being asked to bear. It is well documented that P3 projects throughout the country have not been as cost effective as were initially thought. In point of fact, many have resulted in significantly higher costs than would otherwise have been accrued. We need to see the calculations of these costs which justify sending our tax dollars overseas for the next 30 years.It is also noted that these estimates do not take into account the costs of moving collateral infrastructure such as pipelines, power lines, gas lines and phone lines which had to be modified numerous times throughout the construction process. When these costs are factored in, the estimates go up by another $3 or $400 million dollars which has not been factored into the costs being reported. In summary, Saskatchewan taxpayers have legitimate questions about the real value they are getting for their money.Over the last 6 years we have spent over 20,000 hours researching, writing letters, and doing everything possible to lobby the government to get fair compensation for our business which was destroyed when the Regina Bypass was moved 400 meters from Tower Road. We feel we have been targeted by the government because we would not accept the comparatively meager amount they offered to pay us for our property.In 2014 we presented a petition to the government calling for them to rethink the location of the Regina Bypass. The NDP opposition did not bring up our petition in any session of the legislature. We have subsequently gone to our MLAs both in the Sask. Party and NDP Party with no result. We have attended public events, advertised our story in many venues and turned to printed media where we published this information.This has resulted in positive feedback from a diverse local audience in Saskatchewan.In short, we have done everything we could to create public awareness. Many agree that the public purse appears to have been abused.The absence of any response from our elected officials continues to fuel the fires of suspicion that this story is being deliberately suppressed. Both the government and mainstream media have not been receptive in either listening to our concerns or asking the crucial questions that remain unanswered about the land acquisitions and subsequent rationale justifying these expenditures. We have been barred from public events such as the Cathedral Village Festival and other parades. We were denied access to the opening of the ReginaBypass and were told to leave as we were talking to Xavier Hulliard, the President of Vinci.The burning question for us is: Why are we being ignored and our questions being swept under the rug? Have we lost our understanding of what it means to be a democratic society? Do we not deserve answers that make sense?We feel it's relevant to mention that (now-retired former Premier) Brad Wall, (now-retired), former Minister responsible for the GTH) Bill Boyd and former Finance Minister Kevin Doherty (also now retired) were all members of the Grant Devine government several members of which were convicted of criminal activity. Oddly enough, all three of these gentlemen resigned more than two years before the ends of their elected terms and shortly after the RCMP announced that their Federal Criminal Operations Division would be delving into the highly dubious GTH land schemes which excessively enriched a pair of the provincial government's private sector associates.Thousands of people have been negatively impacted by the Regina Bypass. People are losing their land, homes, businesses, ballpark, accesses, life's work, health, history and futures. Over the last few years we have learned that there are six people in our small area who are suffering from terminal illnesses. We have no doubt that the stresses experienced as their lives were disrupted by the new Regina Bypass have contributed greatly to their overall health concerns.I attended the Premier's Dinner in 2015 in hopes that I could set up a meeting with Premier Brad Wall to discuss how we could salvage our business plans. Instead of being met with helpfulness, Premier Wall warned me to be very careful about what I was saying about his MLAs and specifically referenced your name as a potential litigant.Two weeks later, after just completing a letter to Premier Wall, the champion of the cause, my sister Sylvia, brought it to my desk and collapsed in my arms. Sylvia fell into a two-month coma and has been living in Wascana paralyzed on half of her body for the last four years. Sylvia did not deserve this; no one does.In summary, our 40 year old metal building product business had great potential to add value to our community in several ways. We had imported specialized equipment which would facilitate the manufacturing of insulated steel exterior cladding and siding for which a ready market across North America was available. Our state of the art ‘green technology’ now sits in containers unused for the last several years as we have nowhere to house it in an operational facility. The accompanying added employment that was planned for this expansion has also become a victim of these poorly handled processes. We were bulldozed through by our local authorities without consideration or consultation. The costs to us have been dramatic and insurmountable.I choose to avoid any libelous implications in my public statements. I only ask the questions that I believe deserve answers. That is why I am communicating to you in this form. I am publishing this as an open letter in the hope that you will respond.The issues of accountability and responsibility from our elected officials when handling public money are critical and fundamental. Whether they are elected or appointed, we should expect a high ethical standard of practice and conduct from them.It is apparent that if we relax our vigilance in these areas, we will pay the price of our complacency. Avarice and greed will always be with us, but that does not mean we should remain unprotected from their consequences. We believe that is what our elected leaders are supposed to be doing. Have we gotten this wrong?I again implore you to reflect upon the information being offered in this letter. We have spent over 20,000 hours in research and have accumulated an archive of documentation and recorded conversations all of which point to a lack of transparency and a need for accountability in answering the questions that arise from our investigations. We only document the facts and they speak loudly for themselves.It seems we are repeating a cycle that has been seen before and needs to be dealt with. The often quoted aphorist Georges Santayana, said it well in the previous century when he wrote: “…Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”It’s time to demand accountability, transparency and real advocacy from our elected officials. We are the people who must bear the cost of these mistakes. If we fail to engage in the process, we will continue to be victims.We are asking you, Christine Tell, our MLA in Wascana Plains, where our business is located, please help us to get our business back on track. We would welcome any opportunity to have a meaningful, open and candid discussion.Yours truly,Nestor Mryglod
In June 2013, we attended a Public Open Forum on the new Regina Bypass. We discovered that the approved plan had been replaced with a new preferred plan to move the Regina Bypass 400 meters east of Tower Road. This news came to us after we started our business expansion plans in 2010 when we got approval to build on our property off Tower Road.This new plan effectively destroyed our business expansion plans. We started the Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road to lobby the government. We started researching, writing letters, advertising, and trying to inform the public. We wanted to discover what the science was behind the government’s decision to build an outdated, dysfunctional, seriously flawed, unsafe, $2 billion dollar, developer influenced, dead end Regina Bypass partially within City limits that cannot go north around the city to the commercial industrial business district.When we started our efforts we had no idea that we were about to embark on the biggest fight of our life. We were never consulted or invited to the closed door meetings that determined our fate. The way we saw it, we had two options, we could have said, 'You can’t fight City Hall' and just shut down our business and admit that we had wasted the last 30 years of our lives. Or, we could make up our minds then and there that we were going to dig in and fight to stay alive. When we started digging into the strange circumstances we discovered that we were not the only ones, thousands of people have been impacted. People have lost their land, homes, businesses, ball park, access, health, history, and future. People along Tower Road, who were never properly consulted, were literally bulldozed through by the government’s relentless expropriators. At least half a dozen people in the vicinity of Tower Road are now battling terminal illnesses. The extreme stresses they’ve been subjected to have certainly contributed to their problems. It didn’t take us long to realize that we hadn’t taken up the fight for our own personal benefit but we did it to stand up for all of those people who no longer had the strength the fight.We did everything we could think of. We tried to engage the Sask Party, the Opposition Party, the media, volunteers, other organizations. The only response we got from the Sask. Party was that it was the engineers who decided where the Bypass should go. In documented and recorded conversations with Senior Engineers with the Department of Highways, they told us that they did not agree with the location of the eastern leg of the Regina Bypass. They even confirmed our suspicious by speculating that it was the developers who influenced the decision to move the location.We have tried to engage the NDP Opposition Party over the last several years. We first approached them in 2014 and asked them to present our petition for the Sask. Party to put a hold on the Regina Bypass and to reevaluate the location. We were promised that our petition would be read into the legislature on budget day. There we were, on budget day in the stands of the legislature waiting for the petition to be read. We sat there the entire time hopeful that the NDP would follow through on their promise. We were surprised that when the session was our there had been no mention of our petition.More recently, in the 2019 spring session the NDP brought up our petition for a Judicial Public Inquiry and a Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal several times. We kept pressing them to hold a press conference afterwards but they refused. We have written several letters to our MLA's Nicole Sarauer, Yens Pederson and NDP Leader Ryan Meili requesting to meet with them to discuss how they can help in our efforts. Almost all letters have gone unanswered. Why wont the NDP do their job and represent their constituents who voted for them to speak on their behalf?We have spoken to almost every media outlet we can think of to no avail. We have written hundreds of letters to the Editor with only a handful ever being published. Fortunate, three journalists have been brave enough to write articles exposing the Regina Bypass Land Scandal namely, Geoff Leo CBC, Leader Post Columnist Murray Mandryk, and Leader Post reporter Wyant Mantyka has been kind enough to offer us a few interviews. We have done several rounds of radio advertising, we have done paid advertisements in local newspapers and magazines and for just over the last year we have been publishing almost weekly articles in the Compass Magazine. Some of the most important headlines are as follows:REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDAL COVER UPThe RCMP closed their West Regina Bypass/GTH land dealings case file and announced they won’t be disclosing the science behind their investigations. But we have no doubt that far greater economic wrongdoings were committed on the eastern edges of our City where two major private enterprise developers purchased 640 acres of land alongTower Road after the Regina Highway No.1 Regina Bypass routing was already approved to go North and South around the City at Tower Road. The RCMP disclosed that they never reached the threshold to subpoena evidence or execute any search warrants. They also mentioned that the documents deemed necessary for the investigation were freely provided to them by the parties being investigated and that as such no charges will be laid.We all calling on all people who live, work and pay taxes in Saskatchewan to rally together and help rein in what appear to be significant expense decisions made without disclosure or accountability. It is the taxpayers of Saskatchewan who must carry the financial burden for these decisions made without any disclosure of the details in advance. The optics of these transactions are so poor that we wonder why any elected official would not be concerned when they realized how the facts would reflect upon them as this became known to the general public. When exposed to the light of day, it is hard to avoid thinking of these expenditures as anything other than conniving politicians and their insatiably greedy corporate sector friends appearing to help themselves to vast sums of our public funds.IT SNOWED ON OUR PARADEOn a mild and calm mid November morning, our HighwayRobbery.org team got together to decorate our P3 Cruiser in preparation for its ride in Regina’s 33rd Annual Santa Claus Parade. Our entry was approved for the event; and the P3’s registered theme was a take on Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas story. We drove our decked-out vehicle to the parade’s staging side street and we were politely directed to our assigned parking spot. The parade was scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m., so during the wait we met and spoke with other parade participants.Apparently though, not everyone was excited with our vehicle’s decorative themes. We knew our esteemed provincial political leaders had also registered a vehicle for the parade. Their vehicle, displaying a prominent Sask. Party MLA’s name and his constituency, stopped alongside our vehicle for over a minute. It then it moved off to its assigned parking spot. About 15 minutes later, just 5 minutes before the parade’s start, we were suddenly approached by two of the event’s officials who abruptly told us we had to leave the scene. They said us our entry “wasn’t ‘Christmas-ey’ enough.” It should be noted that the Sask. Party’s high horsepower sedan was decked-out with exactly ZERO “Christmas-ey” decorations. However, out of respect for the parade’s sponsors, we did pull out of the festivities. The 33rd Annual Santa Claus Parade was not the first time our P3 Cruiser ran directly into this problem.We entered into the Regina Cathedral Village Arts Festival street fair in 2018. All was going well until one of our colleagues reported that a Sask. Party MLA had been scowling at our colorful displays; and about 20 minutes after that walk-by-scowling a few event officials descended upon us to demand that we pack up and immediately leave the (PUBLIC) street. They were soon joined by an angry Regina Police Service. But then, a well known human rights lawyer stepped into the fray and calmly relayed to the event officials -- and to the angry RPS constable as well -- all the reasons why we had the right to continue on with our campaign. Thanks to the timely intervention of that man-on-the-street lawyer, we were allowed to stay in the fair for the rest of that day.Then, in mid August we drove our P3 Cruiser up to Saskatoon to park it at the Rock 102 Show & Shine auto event. As we flipped through the Show & Shine booklet we noticed that one of the event’s major sponsors was a Saskatoon- based auto sales dealership owned by the brother of an influential Sask. Party minister; so we predicted our time at this rally would most likely be brief. And sure enough, an event official soon arrived to steer us to the closest exit. And since there wasn’t a human rights lawyer in sight, we once again rolled our P3 Cruiser out of yet another Sask. Party affiliated affair.SHOULD OLD ACQUAINTANCES BE FORGOTOur No.1 unanswered question of 2018 is: Who reeled in and reprogrammed Gordon Wyant – Saskatchewan’s current Deputy Premier and Minister of Education – during the early weeks of 2018? Mr. Wyant, the one-time straight talking legislator who confidently entered the Sask. Party leadership race in late summer 2017, routinely told his campaign rally audiences that he “… would hold a public inquiry on the GTH land deals no matter what the RCMP investigation concluded [because] there are unanswered questions for me.” And, during an early September 2017 interview with CBC Saskatchewan, he emphatically stated: “I’m a citizen of this province whether I’m a member of government or not. There are some troubling things about this and at the end of the day we need to clear the air so that people are made comfortable with what happened. If charges aren’t preferred then there’s going to be a report that’s tendered to the director of public prosecutions which isn’t going to be made public and that doesn’t do anything to clear the air. We need to shine a very, very bright light on this and the only way to do that is to give the commissioner the power that he needs not only to compel witnesses and to compel documents and testimony but to make some findings so that we can put this whole thing behind us as a party.”Then, on November 17 of 2017, Mr. Wyant reconfirmed to the crowd gathered in Regina’s Ramada Plaza Hotel that he would most definitely push for a comprehensive public inquiry because there was such “…a cloud of suspicion over the government and the party.” And near the end of that rally he quietly approached myself and one of my colleagues and promised that he would schedule a private meeting early in the New Year to further discuss his plans for a future public inquiry.Two days later, on November 19, we received an email from “Gord Wyant”. That email contained Mr. Wyant’s leadership campaign form letter; and it effectively introduced the candidate and his political platform, positions and perspectives. We were especially impressed by the below subheading and its three ambitious points:Increased transparency:A public inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub will be initiated once the RCMP investigation has concluded.The powers within the Conflict of Interest Act will be strengthened to ensure the Conflict of Interest Commissioner can investigate potential issues more thoroughly and resolve them more quickly.Independent officers of the Legislature will be asked for recommendations on ways to strengthen legislation, enhance disclosure mechanisms, and create a more open and accountable government.Regrettably, our follow-up emails and letters to Mr. Wyant were never answered or acknowledged.Last summer Mr. Wyant reconnected with a national award-winning journalist. In his July 26, 2018 CBC Saskatchewan News story titled Deputy Premier Backs Away From Campaign Call for GTH Inquiry Following RCMP Probe, Geoff Leo reported, “Gord Wyant says he supports the government’s position to move on, despite what he promised during the leadership bid. He would not repeat that strident call for a detailed public review of the controversial deals, instead saying he’s satisfied with the RCMP investigation.”Is there any chance Mr. Wyant was taken aside by the Sask. Party’s damage control specialists and sternly told that he needed to fall into line and to start marching to their protectionist orders because his propensity to freely speak his own mind and to freely express his own opinions could lead to a breach in their Wall-of-Silence and- Secrets? And, is there any chance whatsoever that his Deputy Premier and Minister of Education appointments were granted in exchange for his promise to perform as just another line-fed and well-rehearsed political player?HIGHWAY ROBBERY THE REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDALFor several years, the plan for the new Regina Bypass had been in place and was available for public inspection before it was actually begun. Traditionally, any proposed changes were subject to a process which required full disclosure along with the opportunity for any affected to express their concerns or ask questions. Any proposed changes were assumed to be subject to this process. Such proposals, we were told, would be subject to study and review by the planning departments of both the city and the Department of Highways. It was indicated to us that accepted practice regarding the approval of any changes would likely take several months -if not years, to implement due to the various factors involved. As a result, we and others formulated our future plans for development based on the Regina Bypass plan that had been put in place at that time. We had no indication that this process could, or would be interfered with. We had been assured that major changes were not anticipated or likely to be endorsed.Our company, Super Seamless of Canada, made commitments to contractors and suppliers with the intention of establishing a new manufacturing facility. We had planned to contribute new employment and much-needed diversification for our local economy. Regina would have been home to a source of manufactured products which would be shipped throughout North America.. While our particular circumstances were unique, we were not the only land owners with vested interests in the original bypass plan. We had accepted in good faith that what had been laid out under the aforementioned process would not be subjected to any further major alterations. Sadly, we would be in for an unpleasant surprise.As a Principal owner of Regina’s Super Seamless of Canada, I feel compelled to explain why we are so determined to draw attention to the contentious circumstances that ultimately led to the drastically revised version of the Regina Trans-Canada Highway No. 1 Regina Bypass. We want the public to know who we are; what we had intended to achieve; and why we believe certain civic and provincial political authorities have unfairly prevented us from achieving our primary business expansion goals.Our family has strived for 40 years to operate a dependable, state of the art, industry leading business here in Regina. We have had to overcome many pitfalls and obstacles throughout the years so that our unique lines of exterior cladding products could continually be improved and modernized. Our products address both environmental and durability concerns, and they are aesthetically superior to any other products designed for similar applications. Our four decades of successes, failures, and challenges have greatly sharpened our business survival instincts and our problem-solving skills. Our ability to adapt to constantly evolving industry trends and economic fluctuations drive our willingness to pursue new and emerging opportunities within our chosen profession.We have taken on tremendous levels of risk over our 40-year run, as evidenced by the many upgrades we completed at our Exterior Finish Manufacturing Plant to ensure that Super Seamless of Canada would remain a service leader to the Residential, Commercial, Architectural and Agricultural building markets in Saskatchewan and Western Canada.Ten years ago we identified viable markets for our products within a large number of regions throughout the United States and Canada. So, we began to make extensive plans to take advantage of this potentially very lucrative opportunity. Our goal was to establish Regina as the manufacturing home base for insulated metal siding products that would ship all over the continent. We projected our expansion ambitions would eventually employ over 200 full-time employees.We were able to utilize an 11-acre tract of land we purchased alongside the Highway No.1 South Service Road (just a short distance east of Tower Road) in 2005 and began our expansion in 2010. We were well aware that someday the Regina Bypass would be built on Tower Road. The plans for that reality had already been in place for some time following countless government-commissioned studies and consultations. We selected our new site based on this information.However, shortly after our expansion efforts had begun we were served with a Notice of Land Expropriation that stated portions of our front and back property would be taken, leaving us with 9 acres of the original 11- acre tract. Despite our protests, four days after the Notice of Land Expropriation was served bulldozers arrived to plow through portions of what had been our property, destroying our building products and pallets – which were hastily hauled away to the City of Regina Landfill.IS OUR GOVERNMENT A PUPPET TO OMNIPOTENT DEVELOPERSThe decision that no charges will be laid in the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) and Scandal investigations marks an all-time low point in the history of democracy and human rights in Saskatchewan. From our well-researched perspective, it appears the RCMP are attempting to whitewash the (alleged) criminal actions at the blackened core of the GTH land transactions, which seemed to have been driven by a fraudulent series of land buying and selling (and overnight flipping) schemes that ultimately filled the pockets of private sector friends of the provincial government with $11 Million Dollars of taxpayer monies. And based on the RCMP’s no charges-will-be-laid decision, apparently there is nothing at all wrong with any of those proceedings.We absolutely believe that at least a handful of our provincial government leaders have shamefully violated their own Code of Ethical Conduct For Members of the Legislative AssemblyHere are the facts: Bill Boyd was the minister responsible for the GTH in early 2012 when Robert Tappauf (an Alberta land baron who rents farmland to Boyd at Kindersley, Saskatchewan) made an offer to purchase a total of 204 acres of land from two property owners, who were situated between the GTH and the West Regina Bypass. The day after his purchase was finalized in early 2013 Mr. Tappauf earned himself a rather excessive net profit of $6 million dollars when he sold (aka flipped) that plot of land to Anthony Marquart (another Sask. Party-friendly developer/speculator).So, where are we now? For more than a decade our ‘transparent and fair-to-all’ democratic government has spun and spewed out numerous redacted tall tales. The following bullet points briefly overview just some of the unjust situations that have been created by the woefully bloated Regina Bypass project:The bypass’s original projected cost of $400 million has now exploded to over $2 billion, and many analysts believe the final bill could easily exceed $3 billion dollars!Vinci, a scandal-ridden company from France, was awarded the bypass’s general construction contract as well as its 30-year maintenance contract. That decision has shipped off at least a billion dollars of public funds overseas.Many capable and deserving Sask-based road and bridge building companies received little or no work from this unprecedented public works fiasco. A number of those deserving and capable companies have now laid off workers, and some have even gone out of business.On the flip-side of this tarnished coin, certain government-friendly developers and land speculators have been paid up to 80 times more for their land holdings than was offered to long-time land, home and business owners in the same areas.Our 40-year-old family-owned business (Super Seamless of Canada) was bulldozed through by the Ministry of Highways’ land expropriators. Those callous actions significantly harmed our local business operations and completely destroyed our international business expansion plans.The wasteful spending on the Regina Bypass has severely depleted the monies the Ministry of Highways critically needed to maintain and repair hundreds of existing highways throughout Saskatchewan which have been designated as “roadways of concern.” The wasteful spending on the Regina Bypass has also greatly contributed to the successive slash-and-burn deficit budgets that cut public sector jobs, services and wages; that shuttered STC and sold off other Crown Corporations. Adding to the pain is the additional 6% provincial tax imposed on the construction and service industries. `PETITION CALLING FOR A JUDICIAL PUBLIC INQUIRY AND FORENSIC AUDIT INTO THE REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDALWHEN, WHERE, AND WHY DID THEY BURY THEIR MORAL COMPASSOn Thursday, April 4th 2019, a vote was conducted within the Saskatchewan Legislature regarding whether or not a Public Inquiry would be launched into the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) venture. A venture that is to date, is more than $40 Million Dollars in debt. Predictably, all 13 members of the NDP caucus voted for a Public Inquiry; and, eventually, all 48 members of the Sask. Party caucus voted against a Public Inquiry.Initially, Sask. Party MLA Tina Beaudry-Mellor blurted out “Yes” when it was her turn to verbally register her vote. Her affirmative response instantly shocked and surprised every attending MLA. Mere seconds later, once Ms. Beaudry-Mellor stated she had meant to say “No” and had apologized for her gaff, the collective gasps of disbelief were replaced with light-hearted teasing from both sides of the aisle.Obviously, during that particular session, Ms. Beaudry-Mellor wasn’t 100% focused on her solemn responsibility to continue to keep the provincial government’s many secretive, and some might even say deceitful “special” arrangements with their close private enterprise ‘supporters’, from being unearthed and exposed to the citizens of Saskatchewan. Did a split-second pang of guilt lead to a Freudian slip of her tongue? Perhaps she experienced a flashback to her days on the campaign trail, when in an attempt to win the party’s leadership race after the unexpected resignation of Premier Brad Wall.When Mr. Wall announced he would be “retiring” early from public service, a veteran CTV News Regina reporter later reminded viewers that some of the leadership candidates -- including Ms. Beaudry-Mellor, had mentioned repeatedly that the GTH’s baffling circumstances and proceedings needed to be thoroughly investigated.Nevertheless, in early February of 2018 Scott Moe was handed the Sask. Party’s tarnished crown and dictatorial scepter as the newly anointed political ruler of our vast and diverse province. Shortly after his coronation, a few of his former leadership opponents were invited into the provincial cabinet, including Mr. Gordon Wyant and Ms. Tina Beaudry-Mellor.The fact that these two (now highly placed) individuals have refused to re-address their concerns over the GTH controversy that were once their solemn campaign promises, merely confirms the suspicions of many and the continuing need for a Public Inquiry.FINALLY OTTAWA MAY NOW BE LISTENINGEnough legitimate questions have been raised regarding the unusual processes and transactions which took place prior to and during construction of this yet to be completed project. It would appear to have gotten the attention of our Federal legislators. The House of Commons now is on record as agreeing to look into this matter further. We can only hope that this is not merely lip service, but can be taken at face value that the federal minister responsible will undertake a thorough investigation into the details surrounding this project from concept to implementation.It will be interesting to see if pressure will be applied by Ottawa as it would certainly serve to enhance their status in the west. Should they succeed in exposing corruption and collusion that many suspect is present with our provincial administrators and their private sector ‘partners’, it might open the eyes of those who continue to discount our questions. The following is a copy of the minutes of routine proceedings in the House of CommonsWHICH HAS THE HIGHEST ROAD BUILDING COSTS? BC VS SK — AN EMBARRASSING COMPARISONEVERYONE LOVES A PARADE…. ALMOSTWe waited in anticipation to participate in our second Exhibition Day Parade, well really our first. We followed the parade last year after the last car, the Regina City Police. We had a tremendous response, many thumbs up, people hollering, “Yes, you are absolutely right, it is Highway Robbery!”After our group had been banned and kicked out of various parades and festivals, we were hopeful that this event would not end in a similar fashion as the others. Unfortunately, in a repeat of events we were told minutes before the parade began that we couldn’t be in the Exhibition Parade. The Regina Exhibition Association Parade Board said we were a protest and it was a family parade. We tried to negotiate with the Parade Director as we were promoting our book. She said that from our deckled car it did not appear that we were promoting a book.We do realize that the theme of our message contrasts that of the theme of the exhibition parade which is one of celebration. Our frustration has always been our difficulty in finding a legitimate platform to communicate our message to the general public.We get it though. What we are ‘promoting’ is not a subject for celebration. It is a subject for public awareness and concern. An encouraging note however was that after we were left in an empty parking lot and being threatened that law enforcement would show up to prevent us from participating in the parade, we were gratified to received high fives, thumbs up and cheers of encouragement from others participating in the parade and many others along the parade route. It causes us to think that maybe, just maybe, whatever we have been saying in whatever venue we could find to say it, is being heard by more people as time goes on.PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTERSHIPS FACTS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOWMr. Romoff is President and CEO of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships. He has demonstrated incredible bias in favor of Public/Private partnerships while failing to address some of the real and major concerns that have emerged with the P3 model.Recent P3 projects in Saskatchewan have proven to be ineffective. The mainstream media in Saskatchewan has failed to criticize any P3 project and even appears to be supportive of these undertakings despite their being numerous problems with many of these projects.Here are some facts that contradict such endorsements.FACTS:Saskatchewan Party government has refused to disclose information on the extent of the cost and commitments of projects using the P3 model.P3 schools in Saskatchewan cost far more to maintain than other Saskatchewan schools.The Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battlefords had to replace its roof only 75 days after opening. According to Saskatchewan Party government Health Minister Jim Reiter, the entire roof was replaced because installed insulation panels had shrunk and caused leakage.Former Premier Brad Wall announced the rebuild for the Saskatchewan Hospital in 2011. At that time the cost was $100 million. Less than three years later, the price jumped to between $175 and $250 million. When the contract was signed in 2015, the cost had reached $407 million. One of the reasons for this high price tag is the $185 million set aside for maintenance over 30 years. That is $6.2 million a year on one facility. This is hard to swallow, considering the former health region spent $3.1 million a year on all of their facilities!The Regina Bypass is now the most expensive stretch of flat road in Canadian History with a price tag much higher than the cost initially pitched to Saskatchewan residents. The cost of the Regina Bypass has ballooned so quickly that the government will not disclose how much the final cost is. We do know that $700 million of this $2 Billion price tag is consumed by maintenance fees.Vinci, a company from France who is deeply rooted in scandals in Europe, including human rights issues, money laundering, and bribery was awarded the P3 contract for the Regina Bypass.The Regina Bypass has presented severe structural problems. The foreign conglomerate being paid to manage it has a record of delayed responses to urgent matters.The Regina Bypass project has many deficiencies. In an email obtained by the NDP through access to information, a Department of Highways official said there were 1,100 minor deficiencies found in phase one of the Bypass as of Oct. 2017. Parts of the Regina Bypass have been sinking, much of the paving work was subpar, and another paving contractor had to be hired to complete the shoulders of the service roads. Light poles are also failing having to be reinforced as they are falling over.SNC LAVALIN AND THE REGINA BYPASSThe SNC-Lavalin scandal has been on the minds of many Canadians since the story first broke in February 2019. People have been anxious to know more after a report by the Federal Ethics Commissioner titled, Trudeau II, found the Prime Minister guilty of violating federal ethics codes.The announcement leaves us with many questions heading into the election. We risk the possibility of re-electing a government that may be charged later with serious crimes. Unfortunately, it appears that bribery and corruption are common themes in Canadian politics. Saskatchewan has been facing its own LavScan here with the Regina Bypass, or should we say, BypassScan. There seems to be a common thread between engineering firms around the world to secure contracts unethically or illegally. It also appears that the government turns a blind eye to this activity.It is well-known that Saskatchewan’s largest infrastructure project, The Regina Bypass is a P3 Project that was tendered out to 3 contractors, SNC-Lavalin, Vinci, and AECOM. The question that everyone asks is why the Government of Saskatchewan did not use Saskatchewan road and bridge builders to engineer and build the Regina Bypass.Through the bidding process, Vinci, a company from France who is deeply embroiled in scandals in Europe, was awarded the contract over SNC-Lavalin. The cost of the Regina Bypass exploded from $400 million to now over $2 Billion Dollars, five times more than the original budget estimate! On May 3rd, 2019, MP Erin Weir stood up in parliament and said, “We have heard a lot on this House about SNC-Lavalin, but Saskatchewan people are concerned another multinational construction company accused of corruption. Vinci Construction took $2 billion to build a Bypass around Regina that was supposed to cost only $400 million. Will this government investigate to ensure that federal funds invested in this boondoggle were not misused?”A HIGH ALTITUDE VIEW OF OUR PROVINCIAL ECONOMYA few short years ago, Saskatchewan was in the midst of an economic boom. The good times we had were largely due to resource development apart from the farming and agricultural sectors. We are fortunate to have natural reserves which have contributed to crop production becoming a smaller percentage of our provincial economic output. The common denominator among all of these items is the demand in a highly competitive world marketplace. When the price of a barrel of oil drops below $60, we are effectively taken out of the running as a supplier. When political decisions are made that alienate major customer countries like China, crop commodities and beef exports are also curtailed. Along with these restrictions, any additional economic development plans with these potential partners are put on hold. The causes for our economic woes fall into two categories: categories: 1. those over which we have no control and 2. those over which we have some influence and the ability to anticipate the consequences of our decisions. When you combine these factors with local mismanagement of our finances, you get a ‘perfect storm’ of lost revenue which must be replaced.The 2017 Crash and Burn saw crown corporations being sold off, essential government services cut, the shutdown of STC, and an increase to the PST. Not only was it raised to 6%, it was also imposed on the construction and service industries. These were sectors that were already forced to adjust to new regulations imposed by Ottawa aimed at making it more difficult for first-time home buyers to qualify for a mortgage. The effect has been immediate and painful. Nearly every contractor and every supplier has been forced to lay off employees and scale back their operations. Finally, we now have a federally imposed carbon tax which has added to the cost of every household’s operation.Yet despite these observations, we are being told that the Canadian economy is in good shape and growth is consistently happening. Many business owners in Saskatchewan would be hard pressed to support such claims.Before the 2017 budget, PST had only applied to construction materials. But the budget had the effect of extending it to labor and overhead, since the tax is now imposed on the final contract or sale price. The change added about $197.6 million to provincial coffers that fiscal year, less than the anticipated $350 million.On May 1, 2018, the Bank of Canada released that for the last 30 years household debt in Canada has been on the rise not only in relative terms but also relative to the size of the economy. They stated that at the end of last year, Canadian households owed over $2 Trillion Dollars and three quarter of this debt is mortgages. Stats Canada has released that there have been declines in trade, transportation, warehousing, and business and building services in Saskatchewan.Shortly after the Sask. Party announced the 2019-2020 budget, a CBC article was released announcing that the overall debit in Saskatchewan is increasing by $1.8 Billion Dollars over the next year and will reach $21.7 Billion Dollars by the end of 2019. This represents an increase of $10 Billion Dollars since 2015. How is it possible that in just four years the Sask. Party has increased the overall debit in Saskatchewan by 50%!Another interesting fact discussed in this article is that the interest payments are $694 Million Dollars on our provincial debt. This is nearly identical to what the province spends on protection including policing and corrections. The point we want to emphasize is that some issues with regard to fiscal management can be controlled. While we cannot anticipate international political consequences or the effect of climate change, we can do a much better job of controlling and managing our own financial resources.Recently, Premier Scott Moe met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss among other things the Federal Carbon Tax. We also heard Minister of Justice Don Morgan say that the provincial government has retained MLT Aikins law firm for the Supreme Court challenge on this subject. The retention of this council will cost Saskatchewan taxpayers $500,000 in addition to the Constitutional Lawyers the government already employs.This figure also doesn’t represent the court fees and additional legal fees that will be required to sustain this action as it winds through the courts over the following months, or years if necessary. The carbon tax is a constitutional issue that will most likely be a no win battle for the Sask. Party.We contend that the recently imposed PST tax is the burden that Premier Moe should be focusing on. Saskatchewan taxpayers need to call on Premier Moe to repeal the PST tax that has impacted everyone in the province, crippled the construction industry, and sent our province spiraling into a recession.We contend that the PST tax was introduced to make up for their waste on the $2 Billion Dollar Regina Bypass. This money will never see the light of day in Saskatchewan again. We suggest the Sask Party should retain the $500,000, (which we all know with real costs will be five times this amount just like the Regina Bypass), repeal the PST increase and reduce its scope. Finally we repeat that a Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal be conducted.Unfortunately, it would appear that the Sask. Party is using the carbon tax as a smoke screen to distract people from the outstanding issues that have in part contributed to our present economic climate. We need to get our local house in order before pursuing a debate with our federal government which can only lead to more division and lack of cooperation from Ottawa.As taxpayers we deserve honest answers and transparency from our elected officials and an admission that the management of the Regina Bypass Land Scandal has been a major contributor to our economic woes. A Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit would ensure that certain rules be put in place to prevent a recurrence of this type of fiscal mismanagement.This was a fight we took on that ended up being a fight for our life, a fight for the lives of others, for government accountability and transparency, for our elected officials to step up and do the right thing.Likely, many taxpayers believe, it is far too late to ever recoup even some of their wasted dollars. Nevertheless it is absolutely critical that we band together and demand more transparency and accountability from our elected officials before they enter into transactions that affect us all especially while benefitting only a selected few with exorbitant profits drawn from the public coffer. We must ensure that this kind of secretive decision making by our elected public servants is prevented and can never reoccur. The issues of accountability and responsibility to the electorate on the part of public sector employees are critical and fundamental.
OPENING OF THE $2 BILLION DOLLAR REGINA BYPASS[Regina, Saskatchewan Oct, 2019] The biggest infrastructure project in Saskatchewan’s history will go down in history as, Highway Robbery the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. The taxpayers of Saskatchewan are calling for a Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. The taxpayers of Saskatchewan want to know the following:Why did the Government approve building an outdated, dysfunctional, unsafe, $2 Billion Dollar, developer influenced Bypass within city limits and fails to serve much of the purpose for which it was intended?Land developers purchased 640 acres of land along Tower Road and had the Regina Bypass moved to accommodate their developments.Thousands of people were impacted directly losing their land, homes, businesses, access, life’s work, health, history and future.Land developers were paid up to 80 times more for their land than long term land, home and business owners along the Bypass route. Coincidentally, many of these individuals were either former employees of related government agencies or had prior business relationships with elected officials responsible for overseeing the project.The cost of the Regina Bypass exploded from $400 Million to now over $2 Billion Dollars, five times more than the original estimate.Vinci, a French contractor that is deeply rooted in scandals in Europe was awarded the contract to build the $2 Billion Dollar Regina Bypass.Premier Brad Wall signed an order in council to pay $21.1 Million Dollars for four times more land than was needed and paid 20 times more than others in the same area were paid. The 54 acres of land that was needed next to the GTH was only worth $312,000.The 2 Billion Dollar expense + 6% PST on Construction and Service Industries has sent us spiraling into a recessionAfter a partial investigation, the RCMP abruptly closed the file on the Regina Bypass and GTH Land Scandal and did not lay criminal charges.The people of Saskatchewan deserve accountability and transparency in our government. If we turn a blind eye to wrongdoings of our government, how can we expect change? The issues of accountability and responsibility from our elected officials when handling public money are critical and fundamental. It appears from where we are that the only thing left to do now is put the safeguards in place that will prevent such abuses from reoccurring in the future.The Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road? /HighwayRobbery.org
Laurie Pushor's appointment will not help restore AER’s scandalized reputation: MLAs Jennie Russell, Charles Rusnell · CBC News · Posted: Apr 06, 2020 7:00 AM MT | Last Updated: April 6The involvement of Laurie Pushor in the Saskatchewan scandal should disqualify him from his new position as CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator, opposition critics say. (Government of Saskatchewan)The newly-appointed chief executive officer of the Alberta Energy Regulator was a central figure in a Saskatchewan government land-deal scandal that cost taxpayers millions of dollars, was the subject of a scathing audit, and prompted an RCMP investigation. The cloud of doubt that still hangs over Laurie Pushor's involvement in the Saskatchewan scandal should have disqualified him from the position, opposition critics in both provinces say.And they say Pushor's past will make it difficult for the AER to restore its own reputation, which was seriously undermined in a much-publicized scandal involving self-dealing and lavish expenses by some of its now-former senior managers.'I was quite surprised to see that announcement the other day because I think Laurie Pushor's history here in Saskatchewan still has a lot of clouds of uncertainty and doubt hanging over it,' Saskatchewan Opposition NDP MLA Cathy Sproule said.'If you want to restore the transparency and the reputation of a regulator like the AER, I would think there are several other people in this country who would be much more qualified, with much more experience, that would be able to do the job very well,' said Sproule, who is her party's house leader and critic for the land-deal scandal.Alberta NDP energy critic Irfan Sabir said Pushor is clearly not the right person to lead the AER, especially as the organization tries to reform its governance and rehabilitate its image, while the industry is in crisis due to free-falling oil prices. 'This person brings baggage of his own, and the AER will have to spend time defending this person, defending their choice,' which he said will detract from the vital work that needs to be done now.Last week, the regulator announced that after a 'thorough and exhaustive competition,' it had appointed Pushor.Pushor was a central figure in a years-long Saskatchewan controversy involving the province-owned Global Transportation Hub (GTH).CBC News revealed that in 2014, the GTH bought 204 acres of land from a Regina developer for far more than its appraised value. That resulted in a $5-million profit for the developer's company. A few days later, the GTH sold some of that land to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways for less than half the price it had paid.As senior adviser to then-GTH minister Bill Boyd, Pushor negotiated the initial land deal with the Regina developer, who was a supporter of the ruling Saskatchewan Party.No charges after police investigationAs CBC News in Saskatchewan produced revelation after revelation, the GTH scandal roiled the legislature and the province for months.Boyd defended the deal by saying land prices in the area were increasing at the time and acquiring the land was critical for a planned highway bypass. But a 2016 report by Saskatchewan's provincial auditor confirmed the GTH had paid too much for the land and failed to have appropriate policies in place. The auditor found no evidence of fraud, wrongdoing, or conflict of interest within the organization, although the scope of the audit did not allow her to interview the developer or any other third parties, Sproule said.The RCMP began a criminal investigation of the land deals in February 2016, the same month CBC News published its initial report. Two years later, the RCMP announced that it and the Manitoba prosecutors reviewing the file had determined no criminal charges should be laid. Pushor left his position as Boyd's adviser in 2014 and immediately became Boyd's assistant deputy minister and then deputy minister of the economy. In March 2018 Pushor became deputy minister for energy and resources, a position he held until recently.The ruling Saskatchewan Party repeatedly blocked opposition attempts to call Pushor and others to testify before the province's public accounts committee about their roles in the scandal.Sproule, a former federal government lawyer, said the only way the full truth will be known is if the Saskatchewan NDP regain power because they would immediately hold a judicial inquiry.The AER declined both an interview request to its board chair and to Pushor. 'With regard to the GTH land deal, Mr. Pushor made the AER aware of the matter, and we are satisfied that a thorough investigation exonerated Mr. Pushor from any wrongdoing. We consider the matter closed,' an AER spokesperson said in an emailed statement.'The recruiting process for Mr. Pushor's position was led by interim Chair Bev Yee, during the interim board's tenure. The AER Board is responsible for hiring the AER's CEO subject to the approval of the Minister of Energy and Minister of Environment and Parks.'Pushor starts as CEO on April 15.Recent scandals at AERThe AER faced its own troubling scandal last year, well documented by reports issued in October 2019 by three provincial watchdogs: the auditor general, the public interest commissioner and the ethics commissioner.The reports concluded the AER wrongfully used its resources to establish another company outside its mandate, while former CEO Jim Ellis displayed 'reckless and wilful disregard' for the proper management of public funds.The independent commissioners determined the AER's board oversaw a regulator whose executives flew first class and stayed at $500-a-night hotels, plotted how to privatize the province's intellectual property, and spent millions of public dollars on a private venture in order to secure their future employment.A separate review by Alberta's auditor general confirmed, as first reported by CBC News, that Ellis and another senior AER executive commuted from their homes in British Columbia under work arrangements that were not properly approved and cost tens of thousands of dollars.Ellis also knowingly broke provincial compensation law by handing cash bonuses of $21,000 to two senior executives, the audit found.In some instances, the AER board knew of the behaviour and allowed it to happen, while at other times it was completely unaware of activities. Board members not only failed to provide oversight, they often didn't even question senior leadership.On Wednesday, less than a week after Pushor's appointment was announced, the UCP government said it had named seven new board members to 'bring a steady hand to the AER during these unprecedented economic times.'Critic questions new CEO's experienceBoth Sproule and Sabir question whether Pushor has the experience to lead the AER, given his relatively brief stint as Saskatchewan's deputy minister of energy.'I think any responsible board would have found someone with more qualifications and less scandal associated with his name,' Sproule said.Sabir also noted Pushor's paucity of oil-industry-related experience.'Quite frankly, it is disrespectful to Albertans that they wouldn't be able to find a person more qualified within Alberta to lead our energy sector [regulator.]'If you have information for this story, or information for another story, please contact us in confidence at document.write(''+'cbcinvestigates'+'@'+'cbc'+'.'+'ca.'+'');
Dear MLA Christine Tell,My name is Nestor Mryglod. I am a Principal owner of Super Seamless of Canada. I am writing to communicate concerns regarding the impact the new Highway #1 Regina Bypass project has had upon our business along with several other land owners adjacent to this new infrastructure. The following is a summary of the events which have prompted me to forward this letter and to publish it in an open public forum.In 2005 our company purchased an 11-acre tract of land alongside the Highway No.1 South Service Road adjacent to Tower Road. The city approved our plan and we began our expansion to construct a 200,000 square foot manufacturing plant on this site in 2010. We were aware that someday the Regina Bypass would be built on Tower Road as the ratified plans for the future bypass were available for inspection and those approved plans had been shown to us by the RM of Sherwood at the time we applied for our building permits. At the time we applied for permits to build on our site, we were assured that accepted practice regarding the approval of any changes would likely take several months if not years to implement. Our building plans were approved and we proceeded to order 2 pre-engineered buildings as per those approved plans.Traditionally, any potential changes were said to be subject to review by the planning departments of the R.M. of Sherwood, the City of Regina, and the Department of Highways. These approvals of our plans only reinforced our impression that no major changes to the Regina Bypass plan would be implemented in the areas for which these permits had been issued.Furthermore, we had been assured that no major changes were anticipated or even likely to be endorsed. We had been told that this plan had evolved after many years of engineering functional studies so we had no reason to believe or even suspect that such plans could be changed literally overnight. Sadly, we would be in for an unpleasant surprise.It was not until June of 2013 at a public open forum that we were made aware of a new ‘preferred plan’ for the Highway #1 Regina Bypass. The consultation process with potentially affected landowners in the path of these proposed changes had not taken place or even been facilitated. It was apparent that something (or someone) had succeeded in influencing to city to adopt changes to the existing plan with little if any attempts made to provide opportunity for feedback or the sharing of concerns from many landowners who would be affected by these changes. It was clearly apparent that these proposed changes would have significant negative impact on many owners, ourselves being a prime example.Only much later did we learn about ‘closed meetings’ which were held earlier in May of 2013 (one month prior to the public forum mentioned above) between the Government of Saskatchewan, the City of Regina, the RM of Sherwood, and major developers along Tower Road. It was at these meetings that a revised plan requiring the relocation of the eastern terminal of the new Regina Bypass 400 meters east of its originally proposed location on Tower Road.For our company this proposal resulted in several major points of contention.Our building project would have to be suspended as part of our property was directly in the path of the revised plan. This dictated that we no longer owned sufficient land to complete our expansion at that location. As a result, we were forced to abandon construction in midstream which had the effect of destroying the value of the capital investments we had made thus far. We suffered as a result of these dramatic effects in several ways. In the process of attempting to intervene in the implementation of this revised plan, we suffered the loss of our office administrator who experienced a massive stroke which we directly attribute to the stress brought about by this situation. Unlike a typical employee, she was a family member who had invested a major part of her life savings in our company and therefore had a vested interest in its success and survival. We could not afford to relocate to an equally accessible property without significantly more compensation than we were eventually offered. The increased employment potential that our expansion project would produce would now be forfeited. These were the factors which directly affected us, but there was another important factor that had an indirect but equally significant impact on other businesses and the city itself; The revised plan eliminated the possibility for a northern leg for the Regina Bypass. The revised plans had no provision for relieving the existing infrastructure in east Regina which was already overwhelmed by the traffic using the ring road and city streets in that part of the city. Many had been long-time advocates for this component due to the highest volume of westbound freight traffic entering Regina being destined for the commercial / industrial sectors in the northeast quadrant of the city.I want to clearly communicate what is at stake for us and others as a result of the New Regina Bypass location being arbitrarily imposed upon those whose livelihoods and futures have been severely impacted.Referring to point #4 above, we have learned that other land owners who had similar properties were offered exponentially larger amounts for their landholdings. Our research has revealed multiple instances of disproportionately higher values being paid to others whose land was similarly situated. These facts raise a number of questions as to the motives and beneficiaries behind the revised Regina Bypass plans.I will remind you that I contacted you in 2014 when we discovered the implications of the newly revised Regina Bypass Plan. We also sent letters to Premier Brad Wall and Highways Minister Don McMorris at the time questioning the rationale for the proposed changes. The only explanation we were offered was that it was the engineers who decided where the Regina Bypass would go.This prompted us to enquire with senior Highways engineers, and in documented and recorded conversations, these same engineers said that they did not agree with the relocation plan and that in their opinion it had been the developers who influenced the changes.We continued to work to uncover the truth behind these contradictory positions. We learned that many issues were in need of explanation. For example, our research revealed that Long Lake Investments’ Principal Murad Al-Katib, had purchased 500 acres of land along Tower Road in 2012. At that time, in 2011 Mr. Al-Katib was a director on the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission along with Mayor Pat Fiaco. In 2012 Mr. Al-Katib was again director of this organization with Mayor Michael Fougere.Mr. Al-Katib was able to purchase these 500 acres for $12,125.00/acre totalling $6 million dollars. A short time later, Mr. Al-Katib sold back 128 of those acres to the same government. His company received seven times more than was paid for the property resulting in a landfall profit of $8.4 million. Long Lake Investments now has 372 extra acres with effectively no cost that are now for sale for $375,000/acre. This represents a 3300% profit derived from transactions that have been orchestrated by a civic employee who is in partnership with the investors.To clarify, it is obvious that Mr. Al Katib could not have financed these transactions on the wages he collected as a public service employee. He would have needed backing from elsewhere which we understand was supplied by foreign investors. We are not disputing the premise that intelligent ideas for economic development are beneficial, especially when they attract outside investment in our province. We do however question the lack of transparency in these negotiations when they are done using taxpayer’s money resulting in a windfall for a public servant who has greatly benefited. When one factors in the last minute revisions to the Regina Bypass project that resulted in this windfall, the optics are poor to say the least. This is aggravated by the fact that other land transactions on both sides of the city appear to be tainted with similar misuse of privileged information by those in trusted public offices.If nothing else, as taxpayers we should be entitled to a full disclosure of the circumstances surrounding these and other transactions related to this project. The new Regina Bypass represents the largest infrastructure investment this province has ever made and as such represents a financial commitment that appears to have been mismanaged on several levels.Our research clearly revealed other examples of exploding values associated with land acquisitions surrounding the Bypass. These transactions took place suspiciously soon after they were purchased. These purchases were initially made by those with close ties to elected officials, at least two of which resigned their public offices soon after these properties were purchased. Questions arise when these transactions were completed by the very same government agencies which these elected officials were responsible to oversee.We discovered that Harvard Developments had purchased 141 acres of land right on the corner of Tower Road and Highway No.1 from Gulf Flying J in 2012. We learned that Gulf Flying J had previously tried to get approval to build a truck stop at this location but were repeatedly told by the city that there were no plans to provide infrastructure in that area for what could amount to another 25 years or more. Based on the city’s communication Gulf Flying J chose to sell the property to Harvard Developments. Shortly thereafter, the newly completed Aurora Retail development now sits on fully serviced facilities 20 years ahead of schedule.This is yet another example of how official policy appears to have been influenced without consideration for due process or appropriate communication. City officials failed to provide adequate notice of intent to others who would be affected by these last minute changes. The notice that was provided communicated what was apparently that of a ‘fait accomplee’.The decisions had already been made.This would support the comments earlier referenced from the senior Department of Highways engineers that the major influencers for last minute revisions came from the developers. This is an inconvenient truth as it directly contradicts the official line given to the public when the city administration was questioned on this matter. It became increasingly frustrating to get clear and transparent communication from any official source responsible for the Regina Bypass project. As a result we are not alone in having depended on what was represented as ‘highly unlikely to change’ as a factor in determining future plans and major investment decisions. We feel we have been misled and manipulated by those whose influence is greater and whose interests are being served at our expense.What about alternative solutions?We spoke with Brandt Developments about the location of the Regina Bypass. They told us that they had met with the government in 2013 when they discovered that their access would be impacted with the Regina Bypass long Tower Road. They took a plan to the government to move the Regina Bypass to Gravel Pit Road outside the City. This plan would have placed the Regina Bypass right beside your families land holdings. They included in their plan the estimated costing to move the Regina Bypass that would have saved Saskatchewan taxpayers 25% of $100 million back in 2012 when the Regina Bypass had a price tag of only $400 million. For reasons that only became clear later, this proposal was never acted upon. When we questioned the owner of Brandt about the status of his alternative plan, he indicated to us that the proposal had been shelved and that he had made his own dea. It should be noted that Brandt at one point had threatened to relocate outside the province in response to the proposed changes. We are only left to speculate about the concessions that must have been given to Brandt that resulted in a reversal of his position. “Business in the park” comes to mind as a project that was later the subject of some controversy.At one point the government seemed to be in favor of the Gravel Pit Road alternative and was advocating its consideration. For some reason this dialogue ceased and was never part of the agenda in open public forums. We contend that those open forums were not well publicized in the first place.It remains a point of contention that the efforts to notify those stakeholders that would be affected by these changes were at best only partly effective. We can only speculate that this alternative was unpalatable to others who would be negatively affected by it. This would be potentially true in the case of the Tell family holdings, and we can readily identify with those kind of concerns. It is apparent that some dialogue must have taken place among the stakeholders in this area, but that dialogue was never part of the public record.It is obvious to those who have followed the events surrounding this project that a compromise was needed with Brandt to ensure they would remain in Regina. We agree that Brandt is a valuable asset to our local economy and should be fairly accommodated. It would appear that Brandt has had their concerns addressed and the precedent has been established to facilitate a valued employer in our province.We wonder however, why the same principles have not been applied in dealing with other companies who also contribute to the economic diversity and growth of our community? While we do not have the same footprint as a Brandt or a Cindercrete, we still represent a viable business with growth potential that has suffered a disproportionate impact on the future of our business and the additional employment that we had planned to provide as a result of these changes to the original plans.We started our own investigations, talking to stakeholders, doing research, and writing letters to the government. We soon discovered that no one agreed with the location of the Regina Bypass. Harvard Developments and Long Lake Investments who had purchased 640 acres of land along Tower Road appeared to be the only companies that had no objections to these revised plans. The fact that two subsequent Regina mayors also appeared to have close associations with one of these companies does nothing to dispel concerns of collusion among civic officials and prominent developers.Eighty percent of the land required for the Regina Bypass was located in the RM of Sherwood. The RM strongly objected to the location of the Regina Bypass and thought the process was flawed as the stakeholders were not involved in the discussions. The RM tried to organize a meeting of all of the stakeholders in the RM that would be impacted by the Regina Bypass. Just before this meeting was to take place, suddenly the Reeve, Kevin Eberly, was fired and there was a probe into his conflict of interest, this probe turned into a closed inquiry. During this time, an interim Reeve, Neil Robertson, was appointed as legal counsel for the City of Regina. This represented another potential conflict of interest resulting in no consensus being achieved through any public forum.To further add to the list of inconsistencies, another unusual land transaction occurred close to the town of White City. In 2011 the Government of Saskatchewan sold 7.45 acres at the intersection of Highway #1 and #48 to Mauri Gwyn Developments for $20,000 per Acre. This land had been owned by Highways for decades, and was effectively useless land, given the location. In 2015, the government repurchased 2.45 acres of this property back from Mr. Gwynn, and paid a whopping $400,000 per acre, or 20 times more than they had sold the land for a few years prior.This raises questions for any taxpayer whose funds are being used to finance these transactions. It should be noted that land right across the highway was expropriated for a significantly lower value, between 15 and 25 times less per acre!The questions that beg to be answered are clear. Why is there such discrepancy in land prices when dealing with our various levels of government? ..and ..Where is the accountability to the taxpayers whose funds are being used to make these purchases?At this point I have confined my comments to the issues arising on the east side of the city. Our research shows that similar inconsistencies are evident at the opposite end of this project surrounding the GTH.Most people are aware that the GTH has has been the focus of controversy and potential scandal for years. In the beginning, the Department of Highways needed 54 acres of land for the section of the Regina Bypass that would be constructed alongside the GTH. The government could have exercised their prerogative to expropriate the land needed at the time from the original owners for $5,750 an acre which was the market value based on what similar lands were being expropriated for at the time. Instead, the government ended up paying $103,000 per acre for this land.The most troubling aspect of this land purchase exists with its history of ownership. Two prior transactions took place shortly before these properties were purchased by the provincial government. Mr. Robert Tappauf, a land buyer from Alberta acquired property which would soon become essential to the Regina Bypass project. Mr. Tappauf made an offer to purchase, and then flipped the land overnight directly to another land developer, Mr. Anthony Marquart netting around $6 million profit. Mr. Marquart in turn resold 204 acres to our provincial government for an additional profit of $5 million.It has been noted that Mr. Tappauf rents over 2200 acres of land to Bill Boyd, the former Deputy Premier and the Minister responsible for the GTH at the time. One cannot help but speculate as to how the information about the future Regina Bypass plan was being handled and by whom?Mr. Marquart was offered 20 times more than other landowners in the areas along Highway No.1 and Pinkie Road. The same government agencies who paid Mr. Marquart had offered other land owners in the area amounts based on the appraised values they had established for these properties. Those values were significantly lower than what had been paid to Mr. Marquart. When these land owners wouldn’t accept the lesser offers their land was then expropriated. Something is wrong with this picture.It is a matter of public record that Premier Wall, eventually signed an Order in Council to pay over $21 million for this land on February 27, 2014. When using the value of the land expropriated from the landowners along Pinkie Road and Highway No.1, the 54 acres of land needed for the Regina Bypass should have been worth approximately $315,000. This would imply that the government was somehow manipulated into overpaying about $21 million for this property. Sadly, the landowners along Highway No.1 and Pinkie Road have been forced into legal actions to try to get more than $5,750 an acre, and will inevitably spend years in court. Regardless of the outcome, which is uncertain at best for these land owners, there is likely to be an increased cost to the taxpayer for the legal actions that have resulted from this debacle.Furthermore, when called upon to address these very serious concerns, the Premier’s office decided that it would be best to call for a Process Audit, rather than a Forensic Audit, or an RCMP investigation.Presumably, it should be well known that process audits would only confirm that all of the T’s were crossed and all the I’s were dotted. They do nothing to expose any malfeasance or collusion among those who had access to privileged information or who might influence the planning and development process without public discussion and consultation.We took our information to the RCMP when they were conducting their investigation into the GTH. In September 2018, the RCMP reported that in consultation with Manitoba Prosecution Services, they had completed their investigation of the land dealings in and around the GTH. The investigation spanned two and a half years and dedicated 7500 hours.They stated that all of the information they relied on was freely provided to them, and that their investigation never met the threshold to subpoena evidence. As such, it was recommended that no criminal charges be laid.One cannot help but wonder what their mandate for the investigation was? Only reviewing records of land transactions which were freely provided by those involved does not necessarily shed light on the events leading up to those transactions.Our last line of defense is the RMCP who are supposed to be an independent body protecting the rights of citizens in our country and enforce the laws. They closed the file and didn't even look at the Tower Road and White City land scandals. The RCMP investigation that was completed only on the GTH land transactions has left many wondering how the RCMP could close the file on something that appears to be so blatantly wrong?When Gord Wyant was campaigning for Premier of Saskatchewan, he promised to call for a Public Inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub land transactions regardless of the RCMP’s decision not to press any charges. He is on record as stating; “We need it to shine a very, very bright light on this and the only way to do that is to give the commissioner the power that he needs not only to compel witnesses, documents and testimonies but to make some findings so that we can put this whole thing behind us as a party.” He went on to say: “There are unanswered questions for me. I am a citizen of this province and weather I am a member of the government or not there are some troubling things about this. At the end of the day we need to clear the air so that the people are made comfortable with what happened.”To date, (almost two years later) no further comments from Mr. Wyant have been made. Anyone following this string of events finds this to be compelling evidence that any further investigations into these matters has been suppressed. The only comments that have been offered have been to dismiss the entire subject as having no substance based on the RCMP’s implied exoneration of the participants. We have repeatedly been told that “there is no smoking gun”. While that phrase suggests that there is nothing wrong, it fails to acknowledge that there have been serious wounds inflicted on several individuals and on our public purse. While no ‘smoking gun’ was discovered, there is still ‘blood on the ground’ emanating from the unfair and inconsistent treatment that many have received.A company from France, Vinci, is responsible for building the Regina Bypass. The Regina Bypass is a P3 Project that was tendered out to 3 contractors, , Vinci, SNC-Lavalin and Hochtief-AECOM. Vinci won the bidding for the general construction contract and 30-year maintenance of the project. Vinci has been linked to scandals across Europe including money laundering, bribery, and human rights violations. With recent revelations regarding SNC-Lavalin, we’re not sure if we are giving the lesser of two evils our hard-earned tax dollars.Are our legislators unable to see the obvious ethical questions that might arise surrounding their decisions when awarding these multimillion dollar contracts?The question that everyone asks is; Why the Government of Saskatchewan did not use Saskatchewan road and bridge builders to build the Regina Bypass? Apparently, even though we now have some parts of this new infrastructure that cannot accommodate farm machinery or some over-sized transports, we are assured that the decision to award this project to a foreign company was in our best interests. We can only hope that the reasons for this would pass closer scrutiny in light of all the controversy surrounding other aspects of this project. Sadly, we have seen some local contractors in the industry close their doors in recent months. Many would agree that our current economic climate is volatile enough without exporting our resources such as tax revenue and jobs outside the province of Saskatchewan.The 2017 budget saw crown corporations being sold off, essential government services cut, the shutdown of STC, and an increase to the PST. Not only was it raised to 6%, it was also imposed on the construction and service industries. These were sectors that were already forced to adjust to new regulations imposed by Ottawa.The resulting impact on the local economy has been devastating. It has become far more difficult for first-time home buyers to qualify for a mortgage. The resulting effect has been immediate and painful. Nearly every contractor and supplier has been forced to lay off employees and scale back their operations. For sale or lease signs have proliferated in our commercial / industrial sector at an unprecedented rate. Finally, we now have a federally imposed carbon tax which has added to the cost of every household’s operation. In short, the economic climate in this province is experiencing severe stress.This hightens concerns surrounding the cost of the Regina Bypass being a contributing factor to our present provincial debt. The cost of the Regina Bypass exploded from $63 million in 2007, to $400 million in 2012, then $800 million, then $1.2 billion and finally ended at greater than $2 billion. These costs still do not include the price of land acquisitions! While we have heard attempts to justify these cost increases with the argument that the scope of the Bypass has expanded over the years, it does not negate the fact that these are valued tax dollars that were siphoned from the treasury resulting in many other needed items becoming axed with the 2017 budget.The ‘scope’ of the Regina Bypass has always been to provide an alternative route around Regina for through travelers in order to alleviate congestion, and improve safety along Victoria Avenue and Highway No.1 East. Ironically, the project envisioned in 2007 for $400 Million would have done just that. As it expanded, however, the scope appears to have morphed into an economic development opportunity, and is far less about providing a safe and cost-effective alternative route around the City of Regina for today’s west-bound traffic entering the city. Most of this traffic is destined for locations in the northeast commercial/industrial areas of Regina en route to Saskatoon and Edmonton.At this time and for the foreseeable future, westbound traffic beyond Regina continues to be less than northbound traffic entering the city. Further aggravating this situation is the failure of the GTH infrastructure on the west side of the city to gain traction and attract the industrial clientele we were promised would appear. No doubt this area is designed to accommodate industrial and commercial expansion but at this point that is likely to be many years from now, if at all.Public perception is important. When one considers the observations above, many questions arise concerning the credibility of the communications (or lack thereof) that have emanated from our current legislators. When no answers are being offered that address these specific concerns, it paints a picture of either deliberate ignorance or a conscious intention to bury these facts from taxpayers and hide behind the rhetoric of ‘no smoking gun’ as is often repeated. It appears that the priorities of expenditures have been heavily influenced by plans to accommodate developers and land speculators while ignoring the more immediate and practical needs of many existing businesses in our community. The lack of willingness to engage and communicate on the part of our elected officials only fuels the fires of skepticism.Please indulge me while I provide some useful information. A comparison has been made between another recent major infrastructure project in western Canada and the new Regina Bypass. The Coquihalla Highway in B. C. was the largest highway project ever undertaken in North America at the time it was built. It was completed with a cost of $848 million in 1990.If we adjust for inflation, today’s price would be $1.68 billion. This project spanned 20 months and was built through mountains, caverns and rivers in three phases over 324 kilometers in length. It included 20,000 tons of steel, 125,000 tons of concrete, 160 kilometers of guard rail, 38 bridges, 18 interchanges, and 19 overpasses. Engineers had to clear and strip 1700 hectares of land, remove 2 million truckloads of overburden and nearly 4 million tonnes of gravel. Over one million tons of asphalt had to be crushed and graded.Pipelines and railroads needed to be crossed and relocated more than 50 times. Reinforced earth walls were built to retain sections of roadbed and river diversions were designed and implemented to improve fish habitats, deflect flood torrents and protect against avalanches, none of which are concerns in Saskatchewan. This enormous project employed 10,600 people directly and created 16,000 spin-off jobs.In comparison, the Regina Bypass was built on flat prairie land and required no rock blasting, not having to fill valleys or reinforce earth walls, no river systems had to be manipulated and rebuilt. This project is much smaller in scope and difficulty than the Coquihalla Highway. The Regina Bypass includes 12 overpasses, 40 kilometers of new highway, 20 kilometers of resurfaced highway, 55 kilometers of service roads and twinning about 5 kilometers of highway No.6. How is it that the Regina Bypass, a project that is less than the shadow of the Coquihalla cost over $2 Billion Dollars?The standard argument in defense of this cost is the nature of the P3 component of maintenance for the next 30 years. While this stipulation appears reasonable from one perspective, it fails to disclose the real costs of each component of the overall price taxpayers are being asked to bear. It is well documented that P3 projects throughout the country have not been as cost effective as were initially thought. In point of fact, many have resulted in significantly higher costs than would otherwise have been accrued. We need to see the calculations of these costs which justify sending our tax dollars overseas for the next 30 years.It is also noted that these estimates do not take into account the costs of moving collateral infrastructure such as pipelines, power lines, gas lines and phone lines which had to be modified numerous times throughout the construction process. When these costs are factored in, the estimates go up by another $3 or $400 million dollars which has not been factored into the costs being reported. In summary, Saskatchewan taxpayers have legitimate questions about the real value they are getting for their money.Over the last 6 years we have spent over 20,000 hours researching, writing letters, and doing everything possible to lobby the government to get fair compensation for our business which was destroyed when the Regina Bypass was moved 400 meters from Tower Road. We feel we have been targeted by the government because we would not accept the comparatively meager amount they offered to pay us for our property.In 2014 we presented a petition to the government calling for them to rethink the location of the Regina Bypass. The NDP opposition did not bring up our petition in any session of the legislature. We have subsequently gone to our MLAs both in the Sask. Party and NDP Party with no result. We have attended public events, advertised our story in many venues and turned to printed media where we published this information.This has resulted in positive feedback from a diverse local audience in Saskatchewan.In short, we have done everything we could to create public awareness. Many agree that the public purse appears to have been abused.The absence of any response from our elected officials continues to fuel the fires of suspicion that this story is being deliberately suppressed. Both the government and mainstream media have not been receptive in either listening to our concerns or asking the crucial questions that remain unanswered about the land acquisitions and subsequent rationale justifying these expenditures. We have been barred from public events such as the Cathedral Village Festival and other parades. We were denied access to the opening of the ReginaBypass and were told to leave as we were talking to Xavier Hulliard, the President of Vinci.The burning question for us is: Why are we being ignored and our questions being swept under the rug? Have we lost our understanding of what it means to be a democratic society? Do we not deserve answers that make sense?We feel it's relevant to mention that (now-retired former Premier) Brad Wall, (now-retired), former Minister responsible for the GTH) Bill Boyd and former Finance Minister Kevin Doherty (also now retired) were all members of the Grant Devine government several members of which were convicted of criminal activity. Oddly enough, all three of these gentlemen resigned more than two years before the ends of their elected terms and shortly after the RCMP announced that their Federal Criminal Operations Division would be delving into the highly dubious GTH land schemes which excessively enriched a pair of the provincial government's private sector associates.Thousands of people have been negatively impacted by the Regina Bypass. People are losing their land, homes, businesses, ballpark, accesses, life's work, health, history and futures. Over the last few years we have learned that there are six people in our small area who are suffering from terminal illnesses. We have no doubt that the stresses experienced as their lives were disrupted by the new Regina Bypass have contributed greatly to their overall health concerns.I attended the Premier's Dinner in 2015 in hopes that I could set up a meeting with Premier Brad Wall to discuss how we could salvage our business plans. Instead of being met with helpfulness, Premier Wall warned me to be very careful about what I was saying about his MLAs and specifically referenced your name as a potential litigant.Two weeks later, after just completing a letter to Premier Wall, the champion of the cause, my sister Sylvia, brought it to my desk and collapsed in my arms. Sylvia fell into a two-month coma and has been living in Wascana paralyzed on half of her body for the last four years. Sylvia did not deserve this; no one does.In summary, our 40 year old metal building product business had great potential to add value to our community in several ways. We had imported specialized equipment which would facilitate the manufacturing of insulated steel exterior cladding and siding for which a ready market across North America was available. Our state of the art ‘green technology’ now sits in containers unused for the last several years as we have nowhere to house it in an operational facility. The accompanying added employment that was planned for this expansion has also become a victim of these poorly handled processes. We were bulldozed through by our local authorities without consideration or consultation. The costs to us have been dramatic and insurmountable.I choose to avoid any libelous implications in my public statements. I only ask the questions that I believe deserve answers. That is why I am communicating to you in this form. I am publishing this as an open letter in the hope that you will respond.The issues of accountability and responsibility from our elected officials when handling public money are critical and fundamental. Whether they are elected or appointed, we should expect a high ethical standard of practice and conduct from them.It is apparent that if we relax our vigilance in these areas, we will pay the price of our complacency. Avarice and greed will always be with us, but that does not mean we should remain unprotected from their consequences. We believe that is what our elected leaders are supposed to be doing. Have we gotten this wrong?I again implore you to reflect upon the information being offered in this letter. We have spent over 20,000 hours in research and have accumulated an archive of documentation and recorded conversations all of which point to a lack of transparency and a need for accountability in answering the questions that arise from our investigations. We only document the facts and they speak loudly for themselves.It seems we are repeating a cycle that has been seen before and needs to be dealt with. The often quoted aphorist Georges Santayana, said it well in the previous century when he wrote: “…Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”It’s time to demand accountability, transparency and real advocacy from our elected officials. We are the people who must bear the cost of these mistakes. If we fail to engage in the process, we will continue to be victims.We are asking you, Christine Tell, our MLA in Wascana Plains, where our business is located, please help us to get our business back on track. We would welcome any opportunity to have a meaningful, open and candid discussion.Yours truly,Nestor Mryglod
In June 2013, we attended a Public Open Forum on the new Regina Bypass. We discovered that the approved plan had been replaced with a new preferred plan to move the Regina Bypass 400 meters east of Tower Road. This news came to us after we started our business expansion plans in 2010 when we got approval to build on our property off Tower Road.This new plan effectively destroyed our business expansion plans. We started the Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road to lobby the government. We started researching, writing letters, advertising, and trying to inform the public. We wanted to discover what the science was behind the government’s decision to build an outdated, dysfunctional, seriously flawed, unsafe, $2 billion dollar, developer influenced, dead end Regina Bypass partially within City limits that cannot go north around the city to the commercial industrial business district.When we started our efforts we had no idea that we were about to embark on the biggest fight of our life. We were never consulted or invited to the closed door meetings that determined our fate. The way we saw it, we had two options, we could have said, 'You can’t fight City Hall' and just shut down our business and admit that we had wasted the last 30 years of our lives. Or, we could make up our minds then and there that we were going to dig in and fight to stay alive. When we started digging into the strange circumstances we discovered that we were not the only ones, thousands of people have been impacted. People have lost their land, homes, businesses, ball park, access, health, history, and future. People along Tower Road, who were never properly consulted, were literally bulldozed through by the government’s relentless expropriators. At least half a dozen people in the vicinity of Tower Road are now battling terminal illnesses. The extreme stresses they’ve been subjected to have certainly contributed to their problems. It didn’t take us long to realize that we hadn’t taken up the fight for our own personal benefit but we did it to stand up for all of those people who no longer had the strength the fight.We did everything we could think of. We tried to engage the Sask Party, the Opposition Party, the media, volunteers, other organizations. The only response we got from the Sask. Party was that it was the engineers who decided where the Bypass should go. In documented and recorded conversations with Senior Engineers with the Department of Highways, they told us that they did not agree with the location of the eastern leg of the Regina Bypass. They even confirmed our suspicious by speculating that it was the developers who influenced the decision to move the location.We have tried to engage the NDP Opposition Party over the last several years. We first approached them in 2014 and asked them to present our petition for the Sask. Party to put a hold on the Regina Bypass and to reevaluate the location. We were promised that our petition would be read into the legislature on budget day. There we were, on budget day in the stands of the legislature waiting for the petition to be read. We sat there the entire time hopeful that the NDP would follow through on their promise. We were surprised that when the session was our there had been no mention of our petition.More recently, in the 2019 spring session the NDP brought up our petition for a Judicial Public Inquiry and a Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal several times. We kept pressing them to hold a press conference afterwards but they refused. We have written several letters to our MLA's Nicole Sarauer, Yens Pederson and NDP Leader Ryan Meili requesting to meet with them to discuss how they can help in our efforts. Almost all letters have gone unanswered. Why wont the NDP do their job and represent their constituents who voted for them to speak on their behalf?We have spoken to almost every media outlet we can think of to no avail. We have written hundreds of letters to the Editor with only a handful ever being published. Fortunate, three journalists have been brave enough to write articles exposing the Regina Bypass Land Scandal namely, Geoff Leo CBC, Leader Post Columnist Murray Mandryk, and Leader Post reporter Wyant Mantyka has been kind enough to offer us a few interviews. We have done several rounds of radio advertising, we have done paid advertisements in local newspapers and magazines and for just over the last year we have been publishing almost weekly articles in the Compass Magazine. Some of the most important headlines are as follows:REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDAL COVER UPThe RCMP closed their West Regina Bypass/GTH land dealings case file and announced they won’t be disclosing the science behind their investigations. But we have no doubt that far greater economic wrongdoings were committed on the eastern edges of our City where two major private enterprise developers purchased 640 acres of land alongTower Road after the Regina Highway No.1 Regina Bypass routing was already approved to go North and South around the City at Tower Road. The RCMP disclosed that they never reached the threshold to subpoena evidence or execute any search warrants. They also mentioned that the documents deemed necessary for the investigation were freely provided to them by the parties being investigated and that as such no charges will be laid.We all calling on all people who live, work and pay taxes in Saskatchewan to rally together and help rein in what appear to be significant expense decisions made without disclosure or accountability. It is the taxpayers of Saskatchewan who must carry the financial burden for these decisions made without any disclosure of the details in advance. The optics of these transactions are so poor that we wonder why any elected official would not be concerned when they realized how the facts would reflect upon them as this became known to the general public. When exposed to the light of day, it is hard to avoid thinking of these expenditures as anything other than conniving politicians and their insatiably greedy corporate sector friends appearing to help themselves to vast sums of our public funds.IT SNOWED ON OUR PARADEOn a mild and calm mid November morning, our HighwayRobbery.org team got together to decorate our P3 Cruiser in preparation for its ride in Regina’s 33rd Annual Santa Claus Parade. Our entry was approved for the event; and the P3’s registered theme was a take on Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas story. We drove our decked-out vehicle to the parade’s staging side street and we were politely directed to our assigned parking spot. The parade was scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m., so during the wait we met and spoke with other parade participants.Apparently though, not everyone was excited with our vehicle’s decorative themes. We knew our esteemed provincial political leaders had also registered a vehicle for the parade. Their vehicle, displaying a prominent Sask. Party MLA’s name and his constituency, stopped alongside our vehicle for over a minute. It then it moved off to its assigned parking spot. About 15 minutes later, just 5 minutes before the parade’s start, we were suddenly approached by two of the event’s officials who abruptly told us we had to leave the scene. They said us our entry “wasn’t ‘Christmas-ey’ enough.” It should be noted that the Sask. Party’s high horsepower sedan was decked-out with exactly ZERO “Christmas-ey” decorations. However, out of respect for the parade’s sponsors, we did pull out of the festivities. The 33rd Annual Santa Claus Parade was not the first time our P3 Cruiser ran directly into this problem.We entered into the Regina Cathedral Village Arts Festival street fair in 2018. All was going well until one of our colleagues reported that a Sask. Party MLA had been scowling at our colorful displays; and about 20 minutes after that walk-by-scowling a few event officials descended upon us to demand that we pack up and immediately leave the (PUBLIC) street. They were soon joined by an angry Regina Police Service. But then, a well known human rights lawyer stepped into the fray and calmly relayed to the event officials -- and to the angry RPS constable as well -- all the reasons why we had the right to continue on with our campaign. Thanks to the timely intervention of that man-on-the-street lawyer, we were allowed to stay in the fair for the rest of that day.Then, in mid August we drove our P3 Cruiser up to Saskatoon to park it at the Rock 102 Show & Shine auto event. As we flipped through the Show & Shine booklet we noticed that one of the event’s major sponsors was a Saskatoon- based auto sales dealership owned by the brother of an influential Sask. Party minister; so we predicted our time at this rally would most likely be brief. And sure enough, an event official soon arrived to steer us to the closest exit. And since there wasn’t a human rights lawyer in sight, we once again rolled our P3 Cruiser out of yet another Sask. Party affiliated affair.SHOULD OLD ACQUAINTANCES BE FORGOTOur No.1 unanswered question of 2018 is: Who reeled in and reprogrammed Gordon Wyant – Saskatchewan’s current Deputy Premier and Minister of Education – during the early weeks of 2018? Mr. Wyant, the one-time straight talking legislator who confidently entered the Sask. Party leadership race in late summer 2017, routinely told his campaign rally audiences that he “… would hold a public inquiry on the GTH land deals no matter what the RCMP investigation concluded [because] there are unanswered questions for me.” And, during an early September 2017 interview with CBC Saskatchewan, he emphatically stated: “I’m a citizen of this province whether I’m a member of government or not. There are some troubling things about this and at the end of the day we need to clear the air so that people are made comfortable with what happened. If charges aren’t preferred then there’s going to be a report that’s tendered to the director of public prosecutions which isn’t going to be made public and that doesn’t do anything to clear the air. We need to shine a very, very bright light on this and the only way to do that is to give the commissioner the power that he needs not only to compel witnesses and to compel documents and testimony but to make some findings so that we can put this whole thing behind us as a party.”Then, on November 17 of 2017, Mr. Wyant reconfirmed to the crowd gathered in Regina’s Ramada Plaza Hotel that he would most definitely push for a comprehensive public inquiry because there was such “…a cloud of suspicion over the government and the party.” And near the end of that rally he quietly approached myself and one of my colleagues and promised that he would schedule a private meeting early in the New Year to further discuss his plans for a future public inquiry.Two days later, on November 19, we received an email from “Gord Wyant”. That email contained Mr. Wyant’s leadership campaign form letter; and it effectively introduced the candidate and his political platform, positions and perspectives. We were especially impressed by the below subheading and its three ambitious points:Increased transparency:A public inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub will be initiated once the RCMP investigation has concluded.The powers within the Conflict of Interest Act will be strengthened to ensure the Conflict of Interest Commissioner can investigate potential issues more thoroughly and resolve them more quickly.Independent officers of the Legislature will be asked for recommendations on ways to strengthen legislation, enhance disclosure mechanisms, and create a more open and accountable government.Regrettably, our follow-up emails and letters to Mr. Wyant were never answered or acknowledged.Last summer Mr. Wyant reconnected with a national award-winning journalist. In his July 26, 2018 CBC Saskatchewan News story titled Deputy Premier Backs Away From Campaign Call for GTH Inquiry Following RCMP Probe, Geoff Leo reported, “Gord Wyant says he supports the government’s position to move on, despite what he promised during the leadership bid. He would not repeat that strident call for a detailed public review of the controversial deals, instead saying he’s satisfied with the RCMP investigation.”Is there any chance Mr. Wyant was taken aside by the Sask. Party’s damage control specialists and sternly told that he needed to fall into line and to start marching to their protectionist orders because his propensity to freely speak his own mind and to freely express his own opinions could lead to a breach in their Wall-of-Silence and- Secrets? And, is there any chance whatsoever that his Deputy Premier and Minister of Education appointments were granted in exchange for his promise to perform as just another line-fed and well-rehearsed political player?HIGHWAY ROBBERY THE REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDALFor several years, the plan for the new Regina Bypass had been in place and was available for public inspection before it was actually begun. Traditionally, any proposed changes were subject to a process which required full disclosure along with the opportunity for any affected to express their concerns or ask questions. Any proposed changes were assumed to be subject to this process. Such proposals, we were told, would be subject to study and review by the planning departments of both the city and the Department of Highways. It was indicated to us that accepted practice regarding the approval of any changes would likely take several months -if not years, to implement due to the various factors involved. As a result, we and others formulated our future plans for development based on the Regina Bypass plan that had been put in place at that time. We had no indication that this process could, or would be interfered with. We had been assured that major changes were not anticipated or likely to be endorsed.Our company, Super Seamless of Canada, made commitments to contractors and suppliers with the intention of establishing a new manufacturing facility. We had planned to contribute new employment and much-needed diversification for our local economy. Regina would have been home to a source of manufactured products which would be shipped throughout North America.. While our particular circumstances were unique, we were not the only land owners with vested interests in the original bypass plan. We had accepted in good faith that what had been laid out under the aforementioned process would not be subjected to any further major alterations. Sadly, we would be in for an unpleasant surprise.As a Principal owner of Regina’s Super Seamless of Canada, I feel compelled to explain why we are so determined to draw attention to the contentious circumstances that ultimately led to the drastically revised version of the Regina Trans-Canada Highway No. 1 Regina Bypass. We want the public to know who we are; what we had intended to achieve; and why we believe certain civic and provincial political authorities have unfairly prevented us from achieving our primary business expansion goals.Our family has strived for 40 years to operate a dependable, state of the art, industry leading business here in Regina. We have had to overcome many pitfalls and obstacles throughout the years so that our unique lines of exterior cladding products could continually be improved and modernized. Our products address both environmental and durability concerns, and they are aesthetically superior to any other products designed for similar applications. Our four decades of successes, failures, and challenges have greatly sharpened our business survival instincts and our problem-solving skills. Our ability to adapt to constantly evolving industry trends and economic fluctuations drive our willingness to pursue new and emerging opportunities within our chosen profession.We have taken on tremendous levels of risk over our 40-year run, as evidenced by the many upgrades we completed at our Exterior Finish Manufacturing Plant to ensure that Super Seamless of Canada would remain a service leader to the Residential, Commercial, Architectural and Agricultural building markets in Saskatchewan and Western Canada.Ten years ago we identified viable markets for our products within a large number of regions throughout the United States and Canada. So, we began to make extensive plans to take advantage of this potentially very lucrative opportunity. Our goal was to establish Regina as the manufacturing home base for insulated metal siding products that would ship all over the continent. We projected our expansion ambitions would eventually employ over 200 full-time employees.We were able to utilize an 11-acre tract of land we purchased alongside the Highway No.1 South Service Road (just a short distance east of Tower Road) in 2005 and began our expansion in 2010. We were well aware that someday the Regina Bypass would be built on Tower Road. The plans for that reality had already been in place for some time following countless government-commissioned studies and consultations. We selected our new site based on this information.However, shortly after our expansion efforts had begun we were served with a Notice of Land Expropriation that stated portions of our front and back property would be taken, leaving us with 9 acres of the original 11- acre tract. Despite our protests, four days after the Notice of Land Expropriation was served bulldozers arrived to plow through portions of what had been our property, destroying our building products and pallets – which were hastily hauled away to the City of Regina Landfill.IS OUR GOVERNMENT A PUPPET TO OMNIPOTENT DEVELOPERSThe decision that no charges will be laid in the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) and Scandal investigations marks an all-time low point in the history of democracy and human rights in Saskatchewan. From our well-researched perspective, it appears the RCMP are attempting to whitewash the (alleged) criminal actions at the blackened core of the GTH land transactions, which seemed to have been driven by a fraudulent series of land buying and selling (and overnight flipping) schemes that ultimately filled the pockets of private sector friends of the provincial government with $11 Million Dollars of taxpayer monies. And based on the RCMP’s no charges-will-be-laid decision, apparently there is nothing at all wrong with any of those proceedings.We absolutely believe that at least a handful of our provincial government leaders have shamefully violated their own Code of Ethical Conduct For Members of the Legislative AssemblyHere are the facts: Bill Boyd was the minister responsible for the GTH in early 2012 when Robert Tappauf (an Alberta land baron who rents farmland to Boyd at Kindersley, Saskatchewan) made an offer to purchase a total of 204 acres of land from two property owners, who were situated between the GTH and the West Regina Bypass. The day after his purchase was finalized in early 2013 Mr. Tappauf earned himself a rather excessive net profit of $6 million dollars when he sold (aka flipped) that plot of land to Anthony Marquart (another Sask. Party-friendly developer/speculator).So, where are we now? For more than a decade our ‘transparent and fair-to-all’ democratic government has spun and spewed out numerous redacted tall tales. The following bullet points briefly overview just some of the unjust situations that have been created by the woefully bloated Regina Bypass project:The bypass’s original projected cost of $400 million has now exploded to over $2 billion, and many analysts believe the final bill could easily exceed $3 billion dollars!Vinci, a scandal-ridden company from France, was awarded the bypass’s general construction contract as well as its 30-year maintenance contract. That decision has shipped off at least a billion dollars of public funds overseas.Many capable and deserving Sask-based road and bridge building companies received little or no work from this unprecedented public works fiasco. A number of those deserving and capable companies have now laid off workers, and some have even gone out of business.On the flip-side of this tarnished coin, certain government-friendly developers and land speculators have been paid up to 80 times more for their land holdings than was offered to long-time land, home and business owners in the same areas.Our 40-year-old family-owned business (Super Seamless of Canada) was bulldozed through by the Ministry of Highways’ land expropriators. Those callous actions significantly harmed our local business operations and completely destroyed our international business expansion plans.The wasteful spending on the Regina Bypass has severely depleted the monies the Ministry of Highways critically needed to maintain and repair hundreds of existing highways throughout Saskatchewan which have been designated as “roadways of concern.” The wasteful spending on the Regina Bypass has also greatly contributed to the successive slash-and-burn deficit budgets that cut public sector jobs, services and wages; that shuttered STC and sold off other Crown Corporations. Adding to the pain is the additional 6% provincial tax imposed on the construction and service industries. `PETITION CALLING FOR A JUDICIAL PUBLIC INQUIRY AND FORENSIC AUDIT INTO THE REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDALWHEN, WHERE, AND WHY DID THEY BURY THEIR MORAL COMPASSOn Thursday, April 4th 2019, a vote was conducted within the Saskatchewan Legislature regarding whether or not a Public Inquiry would be launched into the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) venture. A venture that is to date, is more than $40 Million Dollars in debt. Predictably, all 13 members of the NDP caucus voted for a Public Inquiry; and, eventually, all 48 members of the Sask. Party caucus voted against a Public Inquiry.Initially, Sask. Party MLA Tina Beaudry-Mellor blurted out “Yes” when it was her turn to verbally register her vote. Her affirmative response instantly shocked and surprised every attending MLA. Mere seconds later, once Ms. Beaudry-Mellor stated she had meant to say “No” and had apologized for her gaff, the collective gasps of disbelief were replaced with light-hearted teasing from both sides of the aisle.Obviously, during that particular session, Ms. Beaudry-Mellor wasn’t 100% focused on her solemn responsibility to continue to keep the provincial government’s many secretive, and some might even say deceitful “special” arrangements with their close private enterprise ‘supporters’, from being unearthed and exposed to the citizens of Saskatchewan. Did a split-second pang of guilt lead to a Freudian slip of her tongue? Perhaps she experienced a flashback to her days on the campaign trail, when in an attempt to win the party’s leadership race after the unexpected resignation of Premier Brad Wall.When Mr. Wall announced he would be “retiring” early from public service, a veteran CTV News Regina reporter later reminded viewers that some of the leadership candidates -- including Ms. Beaudry-Mellor, had mentioned repeatedly that the GTH’s baffling circumstances and proceedings needed to be thoroughly investigated.Nevertheless, in early February of 2018 Scott Moe was handed the Sask. Party’s tarnished crown and dictatorial scepter as the newly anointed political ruler of our vast and diverse province. Shortly after his coronation, a few of his former leadership opponents were invited into the provincial cabinet, including Mr. Gordon Wyant and Ms. Tina Beaudry-Mellor.The fact that these two (now highly placed) individuals have refused to re-address their concerns over the GTH controversy that were once their solemn campaign promises, merely confirms the suspicions of many and the continuing need for a Public Inquiry.FINALLY OTTAWA MAY NOW BE LISTENINGEnough legitimate questions have been raised regarding the unusual processes and transactions which took place prior to and during construction of this yet to be completed project. It would appear to have gotten the attention of our Federal legislators. The House of Commons now is on record as agreeing to look into this matter further. We can only hope that this is not merely lip service, but can be taken at face value that the federal minister responsible will undertake a thorough investigation into the details surrounding this project from concept to implementation.It will be interesting to see if pressure will be applied by Ottawa as it would certainly serve to enhance their status in the west. Should they succeed in exposing corruption and collusion that many suspect is present with our provincial administrators and their private sector ‘partners’, it might open the eyes of those who continue to discount our questions. The following is a copy of the minutes of routine proceedings in the House of CommonsWHICH HAS THE HIGHEST ROAD BUILDING COSTS? BC VS SK — AN EMBARRASSING COMPARISONEVERYONE LOVES A PARADE…. ALMOSTWe waited in anticipation to participate in our second Exhibition Day Parade, well really our first. We followed the parade last year after the last car, the Regina City Police. We had a tremendous response, many thumbs up, people hollering, “Yes, you are absolutely right, it is Highway Robbery!”After our group had been banned and kicked out of various parades and festivals, we were hopeful that this event would not end in a similar fashion as the others. Unfortunately, in a repeat of events we were told minutes before the parade began that we couldn’t be in the Exhibition Parade. The Regina Exhibition Association Parade Board said we were a protest and it was a family parade. We tried to negotiate with the Parade Director as we were promoting our book. She said that from our deckled car it did not appear that we were promoting a book.We do realize that the theme of our message contrasts that of the theme of the exhibition parade which is one of celebration. Our frustration has always been our difficulty in finding a legitimate platform to communicate our message to the general public.We get it though. What we are ‘promoting’ is not a subject for celebration. It is a subject for public awareness and concern. An encouraging note however was that after we were left in an empty parking lot and being threatened that law enforcement would show up to prevent us from participating in the parade, we were gratified to received high fives, thumbs up and cheers of encouragement from others participating in the parade and many others along the parade route. It causes us to think that maybe, just maybe, whatever we have been saying in whatever venue we could find to say it, is being heard by more people as time goes on.PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTERSHIPS FACTS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOWMr. Romoff is President and CEO of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships. He has demonstrated incredible bias in favor of Public/Private partnerships while failing to address some of the real and major concerns that have emerged with the P3 model.Recent P3 projects in Saskatchewan have proven to be ineffective. The mainstream media in Saskatchewan has failed to criticize any P3 project and even appears to be supportive of these undertakings despite their being numerous problems with many of these projects.Here are some facts that contradict such endorsements.FACTS:Saskatchewan Party government has refused to disclose information on the extent of the cost and commitments of projects using the P3 model.P3 schools in Saskatchewan cost far more to maintain than other Saskatchewan schools.The Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battlefords had to replace its roof only 75 days after opening. According to Saskatchewan Party government Health Minister Jim Reiter, the entire roof was replaced because installed insulation panels had shrunk and caused leakage.Former Premier Brad Wall announced the rebuild for the Saskatchewan Hospital in 2011. At that time the cost was $100 million. Less than three years later, the price jumped to between $175 and $250 million. When the contract was signed in 2015, the cost had reached $407 million. One of the reasons for this high price tag is the $185 million set aside for maintenance over 30 years. That is $6.2 million a year on one facility. This is hard to swallow, considering the former health region spent $3.1 million a year on all of their facilities!The Regina Bypass is now the most expensive stretch of flat road in Canadian History with a price tag much higher than the cost initially pitched to Saskatchewan residents. The cost of the Regina Bypass has ballooned so quickly that the government will not disclose how much the final cost is. We do know that $700 million of this $2 Billion price tag is consumed by maintenance fees.Vinci, a company from France who is deeply rooted in scandals in Europe, including human rights issues, money laundering, and bribery was awarded the P3 contract for the Regina Bypass.The Regina Bypass has presented severe structural problems. The foreign conglomerate being paid to manage it has a record of delayed responses to urgent matters.The Regina Bypass project has many deficiencies. In an email obtained by the NDP through access to information, a Department of Highways official said there were 1,100 minor deficiencies found in phase one of the Bypass as of Oct. 2017. Parts of the Regina Bypass have been sinking, much of the paving work was subpar, and another paving contractor had to be hired to complete the shoulders of the service roads. Light poles are also failing having to be reinforced as they are falling over.SNC LAVALIN AND THE REGINA BYPASSThe SNC-Lavalin scandal has been on the minds of many Canadians since the story first broke in February 2019. People have been anxious to know more after a report by the Federal Ethics Commissioner titled, Trudeau II, found the Prime Minister guilty of violating federal ethics codes.The announcement leaves us with many questions heading into the election. We risk the possibility of re-electing a government that may be charged later with serious crimes. Unfortunately, it appears that bribery and corruption are common themes in Canadian politics. Saskatchewan has been facing its own LavScan here with the Regina Bypass, or should we say, BypassScan. There seems to be a common thread between engineering firms around the world to secure contracts unethically or illegally. It also appears that the government turns a blind eye to this activity.It is well-known that Saskatchewan’s largest infrastructure project, The Regina Bypass is a P3 Project that was tendered out to 3 contractors, SNC-Lavalin, Vinci, and AECOM. The question that everyone asks is why the Government of Saskatchewan did not use Saskatchewan road and bridge builders to engineer and build the Regina Bypass.Through the bidding process, Vinci, a company from France who is deeply embroiled in scandals in Europe, was awarded the contract over SNC-Lavalin. The cost of the Regina Bypass exploded from $400 million to now over $2 Billion Dollars, five times more than the original budget estimate! On May 3rd, 2019, MP Erin Weir stood up in parliament and said, “We have heard a lot on this House about SNC-Lavalin, but Saskatchewan people are concerned another multinational construction company accused of corruption. Vinci Construction took $2 billion to build a Bypass around Regina that was supposed to cost only $400 million. Will this government investigate to ensure that federal funds invested in this boondoggle were not misused?”A HIGH ALTITUDE VIEW OF OUR PROVINCIAL ECONOMYA few short years ago, Saskatchewan was in the midst of an economic boom. The good times we had were largely due to resource development apart from the farming and agricultural sectors. We are fortunate to have natural reserves which have contributed to crop production becoming a smaller percentage of our provincial economic output. The common denominator among all of these items is the demand in a highly competitive world marketplace. When the price of a barrel of oil drops below $60, we are effectively taken out of the running as a supplier. When political decisions are made that alienate major customer countries like China, crop commodities and beef exports are also curtailed. Along with these restrictions, any additional economic development plans with these potential partners are put on hold. The causes for our economic woes fall into two categories: categories: 1. those over which we have no control and 2. those over which we have some influence and the ability to anticipate the consequences of our decisions. When you combine these factors with local mismanagement of our finances, you get a ‘perfect storm’ of lost revenue which must be replaced.The 2017 Crash and Burn saw crown corporations being sold off, essential government services cut, the shutdown of STC, and an increase to the PST. Not only was it raised to 6%, it was also imposed on the construction and service industries. These were sectors that were already forced to adjust to new regulations imposed by Ottawa aimed at making it more difficult for first-time home buyers to qualify for a mortgage. The effect has been immediate and painful. Nearly every contractor and every supplier has been forced to lay off employees and scale back their operations. Finally, we now have a federally imposed carbon tax which has added to the cost of every household’s operation.Yet despite these observations, we are being told that the Canadian economy is in good shape and growth is consistently happening. Many business owners in Saskatchewan would be hard pressed to support such claims.Before the 2017 budget, PST had only applied to construction materials. But the budget had the effect of extending it to labor and overhead, since the tax is now imposed on the final contract or sale price. The change added about $197.6 million to provincial coffers that fiscal year, less than the anticipated $350 million.On May 1, 2018, the Bank of Canada released that for the last 30 years household debt in Canada has been on the rise not only in relative terms but also relative to the size of the economy. They stated that at the end of last year, Canadian households owed over $2 Trillion Dollars and three quarter of this debt is mortgages. Stats Canada has released that there have been declines in trade, transportation, warehousing, and business and building services in Saskatchewan.Shortly after the Sask. Party announced the 2019-2020 budget, a CBC article was released announcing that the overall debit in Saskatchewan is increasing by $1.8 Billion Dollars over the next year and will reach $21.7 Billion Dollars by the end of 2019. This represents an increase of $10 Billion Dollars since 2015. How is it possible that in just four years the Sask. Party has increased the overall debit in Saskatchewan by 50%!Another interesting fact discussed in this article is that the interest payments are $694 Million Dollars on our provincial debt. This is nearly identical to what the province spends on protection including policing and corrections. The point we want to emphasize is that some issues with regard to fiscal management can be controlled. While we cannot anticipate international political consequences or the effect of climate change, we can do a much better job of controlling and managing our own financial resources.Recently, Premier Scott Moe met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss among other things the Federal Carbon Tax. We also heard Minister of Justice Don Morgan say that the provincial government has retained MLT Aikins law firm for the Supreme Court challenge on this subject. The retention of this council will cost Saskatchewan taxpayers $500,000 in addition to the Constitutional Lawyers the government already employs.This figure also doesn’t represent the court fees and additional legal fees that will be required to sustain this action as it winds through the courts over the following months, or years if necessary. The carbon tax is a constitutional issue that will most likely be a no win battle for the Sask. Party.We contend that the recently imposed PST tax is the burden that Premier Moe should be focusing on. Saskatchewan taxpayers need to call on Premier Moe to repeal the PST tax that has impacted everyone in the province, crippled the construction industry, and sent our province spiraling into a recession.We contend that the PST tax was introduced to make up for their waste on the $2 Billion Dollar Regina Bypass. This money will never see the light of day in Saskatchewan again. We suggest the Sask Party should retain the $500,000, (which we all know with real costs will be five times this amount just like the Regina Bypass), repeal the PST increase and reduce its scope. Finally we repeat that a Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal be conducted.Unfortunately, it would appear that the Sask. Party is using the carbon tax as a smoke screen to distract people from the outstanding issues that have in part contributed to our present economic climate. We need to get our local house in order before pursuing a debate with our federal government which can only lead to more division and lack of cooperation from Ottawa.As taxpayers we deserve honest answers and transparency from our elected officials and an admission that the management of the Regina Bypass Land Scandal has been a major contributor to our economic woes. A Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit would ensure that certain rules be put in place to prevent a recurrence of this type of fiscal mismanagement.This was a fight we took on that ended up being a fight for our life, a fight for the lives of others, for government accountability and transparency, for our elected officials to step up and do the right thing.Likely, many taxpayers believe, it is far too late to ever recoup even some of their wasted dollars. Nevertheless it is absolutely critical that we band together and demand more transparency and accountability from our elected officials before they enter into transactions that affect us all especially while benefitting only a selected few with exorbitant profits drawn from the public coffer. We must ensure that this kind of secretive decision making by our elected public servants is prevented and can never reoccur. The issues of accountability and responsibility to the electorate on the part of public sector employees are critical and fundamental.
Let's do a thought experiment; let's say you worked all of your life to get an education, get a job, build a home, raise a family, and start a business. Envision you have plans to expand your business nationally and internationally with proprietary technology, the only machine like it in North America. You bought some land outside the City off Highway No.1 South Service Road, and Tower Road, you began your expansion project and started construction. Now, let's pretend that midway through construction of your first of four buildings, you discovered at a public open forum that the Regina Bypass had a new preferred plan to move 400 meters east of Tower Road. The new preferred plan would destroy your business access, and you would lose your land. Imagine that the last 30 years that you had been in business taking risk everyday working 100+ hours a week, seven days a week, was about to be washed away.Now, snap back to reality. This has been our reality for the last six years. We have embarked on the fight of our lives, a fight for our human rights, a fight for the rights of our neighbors, the people that were impacted by the Regina Bypass, the human rights of the taxpayers and people of Saskatchewan. The unnecessary Government waste on the Regina Bypass has affected the entire province with the recession created in large part by deep-rooted corruption in our government. Would you stand up and say this is wrong, this is criminal? People need to be held accountable.The Premier of our Province needs to be held accountable as he is in charge of the public purse. We elect the government to operate democratically. The Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan website states under the Role of a Member, 'Members are elected to represent the specific interests of their constituents but are also representatives of the province of Saskatchewan and must consider the province's needs as a whole. Whatever their political outlook, and regardless of which side of the Assembly they sit on, members' duties and obligations are considerable.' We as constituents need to stand up and hold the government to account, or we can say, 'You can't fight city hall.' You can't. You can't. You can't.It was 1978 when we started our family business. We fought to get into the business, we fought to stay in business, and we fought to get the right products and services so we could build a successful business. In 2010 we began our final journey to take all of our life experience in the industry and the technologies and products we had acquired and developed over the past 30 years to build a 200,000sq. ft manufacturing plant to house this technology. We purchased a state-of-the-art insulated residential steel siding machine that is 300ft long. This product and technology is the only machine in North America. We could have made Regina the home base for exporting this technology across the continent, setting up plants across Canada and The United States.The planning for the Regina Bypass had been in the works for many years, having multiple different studies conducted. The final Stantec study in 2010 approved the east terminal for the Regina Bypass to be located at Tower Road. We ordered our first two buildings in 2010. We had the perfect plan, an ideal opportunity, the best siding product in North America, insulated steel siding. We even had an international company that wanted to purchase our technology and establish manufacturing plants across North America. This would have generated hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in sales. We could have created employment opportunities for hundreds of people locally and thousands nationally and internationally. We had the approval, technology, knowledge, and experience to put all of this together. Until, one day, in June 2013, we attended the first public open forum for the Regina Bypass midway through the construction of our manufacturing plants. Unfortunately, our dream had suddenly become a nightmare.So what did we do, you ask? We began doing research, talking to stakeholders, and writing letters to the government to try to get answers. What we soon discovered was alarming. We found out that there had been closed meetings held on May 6th – 9th, 2013, that we were not invited too. The only people invited to this meeting were the developers along Tower Road, the provincial government, the City of Regina, and the R.M. of Sherwood. We found out that two major developers purchased 640 acres of land along Tower Road in 2012. Long Lake Investments purchased 500 acres of land for $12,125/acre, a total of 6 million dollars. We also found out that the principal of Long Lake Investments, Murad Al-Katib was a director on the Regina Opportunities Commission along with Mayor Pat Fiaco in 2011. In 2012, Mr. Al-Katib was again on the board of directors of this organization, along with Mayor Michael Fougere. Al-Katib has been chairman of the board since 2013 of what has now been renamed Economic Development Regina.In 2013, the City of Regina annexed the recently purchased land along Tower Road into the City of Regina. Long Lake Investments sold some of this land back to the government for the Regina Bypass. In the process, Long Lake received seven times more for this land than they originally purchased it for, $85,000/acre for 128 acres, a total of $10.1 million. Long Lake still had 372 acres for free that they are now selling for between $350,000 and $400,000/acre, a 3300% profit.Another major developer, Forester Properties Harvard developments purchased 141 acres along Tower Road from Gulf Flying J. Flying J tried for years to get approval for a truck stop but were continually told by the government that the infrastructure was not there and the land would not be annexed into the City for at least 20 years. Using this information, Flying J sold the land in 2012 to Forester Properties Harvard Development for the Aurora Mall. Shortly after the purchase, the property was annexed into the CityCity. Mere months later, the new preferred plan for the Regina Bypass appeared on the scene.We started a lobby group, The Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road. We wrote many letters to the government asking dozens of questions and for the reason behind their decision to move the Regina Bypass 400 meters east of Tower Road. The only meaningful answer we ever received from the government was that it was the engineers who decided where the Regina Bypass should go. This motivated us to speak with Highways and Infrastructure engineers, and in recorded and documented conversations, they told us that they did not agree with the location of the Regina Bypass. They revealed that their mandate was to study only how to get from Tower Road to Pinkie Road. They also speculated that it was the developers who influenced the decision.We spoke with many people who were impacted by the Regina Bypass along Tower Road. We spoke with Brandt, and they told us they did not agree with the location of the Regina Bypass. Brandt approached the government in 2013 with an alternative plan to take the east terminal to Gravel Pit Road, just outside the CityCity. This plan would have saved taxpayers over 25% of the cost of the Regina Bypass when it was estimated to be $400 million. The interchange at Gravel Pit Road would have been able to re-route traffic north and south around Regina. This plan would have been 100% functional to re-route traffic to where it needed to go. An eastern terminal at Gravel Pit Road wouldn't have affected any land, home, or business owners, including our business. Except, this plan had one small problem, Sask Party MLA Christine Tell's family owns land along Gravel Pit Road and has plans for a commercial development.We wrote several letters to our Sask. Party MLA, Christine Tell requesting to meet with her. We wrote letters to Premier Brad Wall asking to meet with him to discuss the impact of the Regina Bypass to our business. The only response we got was that their schedule did not permit time for us to meet. Instead, we were referred to the Minister of Highways, Don McMorris. So, we wrote letters to Minister Don McMorris. In fact, we wrote letters to many different government people provincially and federally.We tried to spark the interest of the media. We started a petition calling for the government to reevaluate the location of the Regina Bypass. The NDP opposition party promised to bring up our petition on budget day 2014. We sat in the Legislature with eager anticipation. We hoped this would turn into an opportunity for the media to pick up on the story and expose the story to inform the public. We sat through question period, and nothing was mentioned. The NDP did not read our petition into Question Period. In the rotunda at the Legislature we asked the NDP why they did not mention our petition after they told us they would. The answer we received was that they ran out of time.This was when we realized that we were in a much bigger fight than we initially anticipated. We had no allies, no one on our side. The Sask. Party certainly did not want this story to come out, and the government is in control of the media, the opposition party did little or nothing to help us. We were alone taking on the world when we began our campaign and still were alone.We wrote a two-page article in the Regina Leader-Post to inform the public of what we knew about the Regina Bypass. We published a letter addressed to the Government of Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall. This letter generated a bit of attention as no one knew anything about the Regina Bypass. We would never have known had we not spent 10,000 hours researching, asking questions, and talking to people that were involved.We began advertising in the Star Newspaper in White City as paid advertisements trying to inform the public. For years the people of White City had unsafe entrances onto the Trans Canada Highway. This problem could have been alleviated with three sets of traffic lights from Balgonie to Regina. We helped to inform many people with our advertisements in the Star Newspaper and frequent letters to the editor.Suddenly, after a year of paid advertising, the Star Newspaper began refusing to print our articles. They also stopped publishing our letters to the editor. They told us that they were getting complaints from people in White City. Of course, we knew who these 'people' were, namely the mayor, Bruce Evans. We knew it was Mayor Evans as we had written him many letters only to discover that he was the poster boy for the Regina Bypass. He targeted our group, saying that we were against increased safety, and the Regina Bypass was needed.The more research we conducted, the more we discovered that the Regina Bypass was a cover-up tainted with lies and deception. The entire project has been spin doctored by the government, media, and the power players, the land developers who purchased land along the Regina Bypass route at White City, Tower Road, and at the GTH.I attended the Premier's Dinner in 2015 in hopes that I could set up a meeting with Premier Brad Wall to discuss how we could salvage our business plans. Instead of being met with helpfulness, Premier Brad Wall threatened me saying that I better watch what I am saying about his MLA's, namely, Christine Tell as what I was saying could be considered as slanderous. Two weeks later, after just completing a letter to Premier Wall, the champion of the cause, my sister Sylvia, brought it to my desk and collapsed in my arms. Sylvia fell into a two-month coma and has been living in Wascana paralyzed on half of her body for the last four years. Sylvia did not deserve this; no one does.We continued to fight without Sylvia with the help of three elderly gentlemen all over the age of 80, still trying to operate our business. We did our best to get out and talk to the people. We organized rallies at the Legislature, we wrote many letters to the editor, did T.V. and radio advertising, compiled binders of information.We hired a lawyer, Bob Hrycan, in November 2015, after the government came bulldozing through our property four days after the land was expropriated. The government land grabbers destroyed tens of thousands of dollars worth of building products. They hauled them away to the garbage dump. The government then cut off our access, cut out the driveway, and dumped dirt on it, preventing us from being able to access the property. Before they would agree to build us access at the back of the property, they wanted us to sign a Release and Settlement Agreement. We refused to sign the agreement and have been left without proper access to get into and out of our property for the last four years. We made do with rig mats that we brought in.The lawyer we hired took a $100,000 retainer. We provided him with all of the comprehensive information that we had acquired. He provided the information and handed the file to a lawyer in B.C. who had no knowledge or experience, and left on a two month holiday. When he returned, over five months after we hired him, the Regina Bypass builder was moving dirt 24/7 in front of our property. He told us there was nothing more that could be done and quit the file.We then hired a lawyer to represent us in the land expropriation action to get fair value for our property and damages that resulted from the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. The lawyer filed a statement of claim and then did little or nothing to move the case along. In fact, he eventually stepped down from the case, saying that we might get a bit more for the land we lost, but we would not get damages. We later discovered that the Law Firm he worked for, Miller Thomson had a conflict of interest as they worked for Vinci, the Bypass Builder.We even had an employee who worked with our lobby group, The Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road, start a frivolous legal action. This legal action has worked its way through the courts as a result of lawyers conflict of interest, misrepresentation, and negligence. A lawyer that I hired from McDougall Gauley, to represent us in this frivolous action took a retainer, did not provide a retainer contract, gave the file to a junior lawyer and left on a holiday. He did not advise me of the date of the court hearing, and I was not in attendance at the hearing where the employee had a lawyer that was in conflict. The lawyer that was representing the employee had previously represented me in a similar action. After we received the discombobulated decision from the Judge, we discovered the lawyer had a conflict and brought it to the attention of our lawyer and filed a complaint with the Law Society. When he did not respond for two months, we wrote another letter. When he finally responded, saying, 'With respect to the complaint to the Law Society, it is your complaint, not ours. Further, as a matter of policy, I do not bring complaints against other lawyers. It is a small family bar in Regina, and I need to maintain a civil relationship with other counsel or my clients' interests will suffer.' Then, in the same letter, 'It is apparent that you have lost confidence in our representation of you. Accordingly, it will be necessary for you to find new counsel.' Again, we later discovered that McDougall Gauley represented Vinci, the Bypass Builder. Did they have a conflict of interest in taking on our case?We have filed complaints with the Law Society on all three of these lawyers for legal misrepresentation and negligence in failing to provide a duty of care expected from a legal professional according to the Lawyers Code of Professional Conduct. The Law Society has supported two out of the three lawyers saying that they were not in breach of the Code of Professional Conduct. We are still waiting to hear the Law Society's opinion on the one lawyer with a conflict of interest. We expect that the Law Society, a self-funded, self-governed, self-regulated organization will take the side of their members.We have hired several social media people, beginning in 2014, to develop a social media campaign and website to inform the public. The government was pushing the Regina Bypass through in a hurry, and the public was not informed of the details. We have had social media people sabotage our success in getting the story out. They took our money and ran.We continued to lobby the government and advertise before the provincial election to create public awareness. In February 2016, CBC investigative reporter Geoff Leo, broke the story on the GTH Land Scandal. The government needed 54 acres of land for the Regina Bypass at the GTH. Instead of purchasing the property from the Order of Nuns for the same amount everyone else in the area was getting (5,000-$6,000 per acre), they waited for an Alberta land baron to make an offer to purchase 204 acres of land. This land baron, Robert Tappauf, rents Kindersley-area farmland to Sask Party MLA Bill Boyd (then-Minister responsible for the GTH). Months later, Mr. Tappauf flipped the land, earning a net profit of $6 million virtually overnight without going through land titles. Another government-friendly developer, Anthony Marquart, was the purchaser of those 204 acres. In February 2014, Premier Brad Wall signed an Order in Council to pay Mr. Marquart $21.1 million for four times more land than the was needed at 20 times the rate others in the area were getting. The 54 acres of land that was needed for the Regina Bypass was only worth $315,000. Bill Boyd subsequently sued Geoff Leo and the CBC, presumably to keep the scandalous story from being published before the 2016 provincial general election. This legal matter was settled in 2018.The NPD did little or nothing with any of the information we provided them or what Geoff Leo had uncovered to expose the deep-rooted government corruption and the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. If the NDP had pressed this issue, they might have been able to form a majority government and conduct a Judicial Public Inquiry and a Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal.When Gordon Wyant was running for Premier, he stated multiple times that no matter the results of the RCMP investigation, he would call for a Public Inquiry into the Regina Bypass to put the scandal behind them as a party and because there were still unanswered questions for him. Once Mr. Wyant was elected Deputy Premier, he backed down from this statement and even voted against a public inquiry.We approached the RCMP and provided them with three binders of comprehensive information on some of what we had learned about the Regina Bypass Scandal. In September 2018, the RCMP reported that in consultation with Manitoba Prosecution Services, they had completed their investigation of the land dealings in and around the GTH. The investigation spanned two and a half years and dedicated 7500 hours. They disclosed that all of the information they relied on was freely provided to them, and they never met the threshold to subpoena evidence. As such, it was recommended that no criminal charges be laid. Here, we are our last line of defense, the RMCP, who are supposed to be an independent body protecting the rights of citizens in our country and uphold the laws, nothing. They closed the file and didn't even look at the Tower Road and White City land scandals.Over the last year, we have been writing weekly articles in the Compass Magazine detailing everything we know about the Regina Bypass. The people who are informed and follow these articles understand. They realize that we have a corrupt system of government, and no one is keeping them in check, not our opposition party and not the media. The principals in our business and the member of our group have been standing up for the survival of our business, the people of our province, and the taxpayers who work hard to put food on the table, to have shelter, to raise a family.Everyone in Saskatchewan has been impacted by the Regina Bypass with this 2017 provincial budget and the 6% PST tax on the construction and service industries. The construction industry has been brought to a screeching halt, and Saskatchewan is now in an economic recession. Thousands of people are out of work, businesses are shutting down, and warehouses are for lease. And yet, the government continues to spin the story.Our investigative team has been discredited by the media; threatened by former Premier Brad Wall; assaulted by the Deputy Mayor of White City; harassed and almost arrested by the police during the 2018 Cathedral Village Arts Festival; kicked out of Saskatoon's 2018 Show and Shine Car Show (an event that is sponsored by Deputy Premier Gordon Wyant's brother); ejected from Regina's 2018 Santa Claus Parade (because our vehicle's The Grinch Who Stole Christmas decorations were not 'Christmassy enough'); pushed out of the 2019 Queen City Ex Parade (because we were 'too political'); and delayed during our supporting cruise in this September's Special Olympics Saskatchewan convoy.This week was the opening of the Regina Bypass. The Saskatchewan Party and Vinci held a closed Grand Opening on Pinkie Road and had a tent and speakers set up. We discovered the details 30 minutes before the Grand Opening and quickly got our P3 Cruiser, the crime finding cruiser, and made our way there to be part of the festivities. We got there after all of the speeches had been completed, and everyone had begun mingling. We took some pictures at the event and mingled with the crowd. By chance, we happened to speak with a gentleman from France who turned out to be Xavier Hulliard. Xavier introduced himself to us as the President and CEO of Vinci. Just as I was about to engage him in conversation, we were approached by a man who introduced himself as Tony Plaxton. He told us that this was a closed event, and he wanted us to leave as it was only for the Vinci people. I was confused as I thought it was a public opening of the Regina Bypass and that there were others there who were not Vinci people. He told us that they would be asked to leave as well. We decided not to create a scene and left voluntarily.We sent out a press release to the media. Not long after, we were contacted by one media station for an interview, CTV Wayne Mantyka. Mr. Mantyka has been following our story and has given us several interviews and a little bit of media attention.We can't help but wonder why we weren't invited to speak at the Grand Opening? Is the government trying to bury this story? During the Grand Opening, we heard the government say that they saved $300 million using the P3 model. This is part of their lies and deception. If we compare the Coquihalla Highway in B.C. to the Regina Bypass, we can see that the Regina Bypass is 40km of new four-lane highway, 12 overpasses, 55km of service roads, 5km of highway twinning, and 20km of resurfacing. Compared to the Coquihalla's 320km of four-lane highway, 18 interchanges, 38 bridges/ overpasses, 319 underpasses, 8 avalanche dams, 19 containment basins, 3 diversion trenches, 73 sets of avalanche benches, and 1 massive snow shed. The total cost of the Coquihalla highway adjusted for inflation was $1.63 Billion Contrast this number with the $1.88 Billion Regina Bypass, and this price doesn't include land purchases from the over 100 landowners along the Regina Bypass route. How is it possible that the Coquihalla highway through the mountains cost less to build than to 40km Regina Bypass on flat prairie land?The Fire Chief from White City made a speech at the opening stating that we can already see the improvement in safety as they have not had to use their jaws of life since the opening of the Bypass. Why didn't the Fire Chief talk about the accident that occurred when a confused driver on the diverging diamond got off the ramp on the wrong side into oncoming traffic and was confused, causing a head-on collision? Another speaker at the Regina Bypass opening was a woman named Wanda Campbell. Wanda lost her son in a fatal collision on Highway No.1. We want to send our sympathies to Wanda and her family for their tragic loss.The government has been trying to spin this story and go back on their word that the main reason for the Regina Bypass was increased safety. However, in 2008 the Minister of Highways is quoted in the Legislature saying, 'I wanted to come up with a fairly clear set of criteria on which we evaluate each and every project, so that the projects would be driven by economics first off, and then secondly safety, and thirdly socio-economic criteria.' And then again on June 20, 2016 the deputy minister of Highways said in the Legislature, 'And so when we look at highway development projects, we do take a look at the whole area as a whole and determine, based on the condition of the road, the economic importance of the road, as well as the type of economic activity that is generated in that area. We proceed to prioritize these roads.' It is clear the government spent $2 billion on the Regina Bypass for purely economic reasons and not safety. Although safety is of great importance to us and others, the government was not driven to build the Regina Bypass to improve safety for taxpayers.As the government continues to spin the story, we will continue our efforts to expose what we know about the Regina Bypass, the biggest infrastructure project in Saskatchewan's history will go down in history as Highway Robbery the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. We keep finding ourselves asking, how can something so wrong happen in the 21st century? This is like 19th century Highway Robbery in the 21st century. We have tried many things to create public awareness of the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. We have found that 99% of the informed public agrees that the Regina Bypass, the biggest infrastructure project in Saskatchewan's history, will go down in history as Highway Robbery the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. Everyone we talk to agrees that the Regina Bypass is wrong for Saskatchewan and sign our petition for a Judicial Public Inquiry and a Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass.
Volumes of information were provided to the RCMP, and an investigation was conducted on the land transactions at the GTH. In 2018, the RCMP closed the file on the Regina Bypass Scandal stating they conducted an extensive and wide-ranging investigation that lasted two years. They spent 7500 hours investigating documents that were freely provided to them and never met the threshold to subpoena evidence.During the same time, Premier Brad Wall resigned as well as MLA Bill Boyd and Finance Minister Kevin Doherty. Gordon Wyant, now Deputy Premier said while he was campaigning for Premier that he would call for a Public Inquiry into the Regina Bypass to clear the air even if the RCMP found nothing wrong. This was soon swept under the carpet, and a statement was issued that the RCMP did their job and no Public Inquiry was necessary. It is very obvious that there is a lot more going on here than the government and the RCMP want us to believe. Through all of this, we can see a tangled web of corruption and collusion that is being covered up by the government much the same as the SNC-Lavalin scandal.As the completion of the Regina Bypass approaches, we have been able to see the flaws in the design and implementation of the engineering by Vinci. It is clear that this project is not up to standards with round-about issues, a confusing diverging diamond, the Bypass is sinking off Tower Road, and light poles are falling over and have to be redone. Saskatchewan engineers and contractors have engineered and constructed overpasses and highway successfully in our province for over a century. Which begs the questions, why was a French company given the lead on this project when they are unaware of our standards and conditions?If we turn a blind eye to wrongdoings of our government, how can we expect change? The issues of accountability and responsibility from our elected officials when handling public money are critical and fundamental. Whether they are elected or appointed, we should expect a high ethical standard of practice and conduct from them. In light of the current scandal involving our PM, a call for greater accountability and reforms to ethical standards are necessary both on the federal and provincial levels. Georges Santayana, the Spanish born aphorist from the last century, said it well when he wrote:“…Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”It’s time to demand accountability, transparency, and real advocacy from our elected officials. We are the people who must bear the cost of these mistakes. If we fail to engage in the process, we will continue to be victims.John F. Kennedy said, “Our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities.”
A few weeks ago one of our Highwayrobbery.org contributors forwarded this article to us; and we decided to have it printed in order to remind readers of the Sask. Party’s desperate and deliberate efforts to stifle the freedom of speech rights of their toe-the-line elected members:On Thursday, April 4th, a vote was conducted within the Saskatchewan Legislature regarding whether or not a Public Inquiry would be launched into the epically mismanaged Global Transportation Hub (GTH) venture. A venture that is to date, more than $40 million dollars in debt. Predictably, all 13 members of the NDP caucus voted for a Public Inquiry; and, eventually, all 48 members of the Sask. Party caucus voted against a Public Inquiry.Initially, Sask. Party MLA Tina Beaudry-Mellor blurted out “Yes” when it was her turn to verbally register her vote. Her affirmative response instantly shocked and surprised every attending MLA. Mere seconds later, once Ms. Beaudry-Mellor stated she had meant to say “No” and had apologized for her gaff, the collective gasps of disbelief were replaced with light-hearted teasing from both sides of the aisle. (side not: perhaps our elected legislators should limit their Question Period levity whenever serious matters, which have contributed to recessionary hardships, are being addressed.)Obviously, during that particular session, Ms. Beaudry-Mellor wasn’t 100% focused on her solemn responsibility to continue to keep the provincial government’s many secretive, and some might even say deceitful “special” arrangements with their close private enterprise ‘supporters’, from being unearthed and exposed to the citizens of Saskatchewan. Did a split-second pang of guilt lead to a Freudian slip of her tongue? Perhaps she experienced a flashback to her days on the campaign trail, when in an attempt to win the party’s leadership race after the unexpected resignation of Premier Brad Wall.When Mr. Wall announced he would be ‘retiring’ early from public service, a veteran CTV News Regina reporter later reminded viewers that some of the leadership candidates– including Ms. Beaudry-Mellor, had mentioned repeatedly that the GTH’s baffling circumstances and proceedings needed to be thoroughly investigated. The Honorable Gordon Wyant was also one of those leadership hopefuls who routinely declared that the GTH land buying and selling transactions should be more deeply investigated due to the ‘cloud of suspicion over the government and the party.”Nevertheless, in early February of 2018 Scott Moe was handed the Sask. Party’s tarnished crown and dictatorial scepter as the newly anointed political ruler of our vast and diverse province. Shortly after his coronation, a few of his former leadership opponents were invited into the provincial cabinet, including Mr. Gordon Wyant (currently our Deputy Premier and Minister of Education) and Ms. Tina Beaudry-Mellor (currently our Minister of Advanced Education).The fact that these two (now highly placed) individuals have refused to re-address their concern over the GTH controversy that were once their solemn campaign promises, merely confirms the suspicion of many and the continuing need for a Public Inquiry.It would appear that if one wishes to remain a member of our present government’s closed-door inner circle, they must first lose their public service morals and ethics. It seems they have all pledged to fiercely defend the party’s position to erect a ‘wall of silence’ surrounding this issue. One is left no choice but to speculate as to what exactly are they so committed to keeping the public from learning? Is it possible that many of the activities surrounding this project might even have criminal implications? The present position of these elected officials precludes any such dialogue. The optics are very bad.Mr. Wyant occasionally reappears on the public stage to recite what appear to be well-rehearsed lines into media microphones. Whenever his party’s ill-advised policies and decisions incite angry backlashes from some of Saskatchewan’s marginalized citizens he seems to get tasked with the unenviable duty of attempting to cool the heat.A recent example of the Sask. Party’s brush fired that were ignited by their 2019-20 budget announcements, was that the funding for Regina’s Cornwall Alternative School would be terminated. The heat of that fire was then intensified and spread by the concerted efforts of many stakeholders to salvage this much-needed institution. opposition MLA’s, school board members, current and former students, teachers, and administrators all voiced their grave concerns over the impending closure of this critically needed school. As a result, the provincial government ultimately reversed their planned funding cut.Wearing his Minister of Education hat, Mr. Wyant admitted that he “needs to ask more questions and have more conversations with both public and Catholic school divisions.” Mr. Wyant also stated; “I make decisions based on the information that comes to me, and I think that’s a bit of a failing on my part,- that I didn’t reach out, -that I didn’t ask enough questions when it came to the decision that we made in the budget.”We want our readers to note that on the evening of Nov.17, 2017 during Mr. Wyant’s Sask. Party leadership run, our colleagues reached out to him after his stump speech inside Regina’s Ramada Plaza hotel. They were most willing to have him ask them questions, to provide him with extensive information and to engage with him in conversation regarding his government’s $2 billion dollar-plus Regina Trans-Canada Highway No.1 Bypass. After these encounters, Mr. Wyant is on record as taking a position of concern and promising to shine a very bright light on the activities surrounding this project. Obviously, something has changed. He seems to have developed a very selective memory which does not include his former promises.Judging by his prompt response to the Cornwall Alternative School dust-up, it seems the optimal way to remind Mr. Wyant of his forgotten promise to launch a Public Inquiry into the confounding aspects of the GTH and to ‘put his feeet to the fire’ so to speak.We contend that this 500% over-budget infrastructure project has directly or indirectly impacted many tax-paying citizens. It continues to be a major factor contributing to fiscal pressure on our provinces’ operational budgets. We see continual cuts to many essential services and programs as a result.Over the last few years, a number of billboards have appeared throughout Regina that has emphatically asked all Sask. Party MLA’s: “WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?”Isn’t it about time Public Inquiry and forensic Audit, investigators formally ask all Sask. Party MLAs, along with their administrative staff and ministerial assistants, this very same question?A cynical position emerges with many who have suffered as a result. They see the new Regina Bypass as an incredibly dysfunctional, confusing, unsafe, built in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons, recession-causing, developer-influenced boondoggle which has tremendously benefited only a handful of the government’s private-sector supporters at the expense of the rest of us. In our view, that is anyting but democratic. We demand explanations. After all, we’re the ones on the hook for the costs!
In a recent legislative session, the NDP put forward a motion to conduct a public inquiry into the much debated GTH Land planning and appropriation process. The entire project has been fraught with scandal and controversy from its very beginnings. Not surprisingly, the members of the ruling Sask. Party immediately and unanimously voted to quash this motion claiming that this project had already been subject to RCMP investigation and no charges had resulted, so they felt it was a dead issue with no need to look into the matter any further.This response reminds us of the kind of cynical comment one might hear from a policeman directing traffic at a roadside fatality… “move on folks, nothing to see here.”Among numerous inconsistencies in the behavior of our regulators, we point to one that stands out dramatically; In 2017 while campaigning for Premier of Saskatchewan following the sudden, and some think peculiar, resignation of former Premier Brad Wall, Mr. Gordon Wyant conspicuously campaigned on the issue of opening the books and conducting a public inquiry into the GTH matter. This was one of the prominent planks in his platform, and at the time Mr. Wyant, appeared to be a straight talking legislator.Mr. Wyant appeared confident as he entered the Sask. Party leadership race in late summer 2017. He routinely told him campaign rally audiences that he “…would hold a public inquiry on the GTH land deals no matter what the RCMP investigation concluded [because] there are unanswered questions for me.”Again, in an early September 2017 interview with CBC Saskatchewan, he emphatically stated: “I’m a citizen of this province whether I’m a member of government or not. There are some troubling things about this and at the end of the day we need to clear the air so that people are made comfortable with that happened.” He then went on to say: “If this process doesn’t result in charges being preferred, it will only be tendered to the director of public prosecutions which won’t be made available to the general public”. … “That doesn’t do anything to clear the air. We need to shine a very, very bright light on this, and the only way to do that is to give the commissioner the power that he needs not only to compel witnesses, documents and testimony, but to make their findings visible so that we can put this whole thing behind us as a party.”Mr. Wyant seems to have forgotten him emphatic promises and has now joined with his colleagues in voting against the very inquiry for which he dramatically advocated in the past. This reversal of philosophy only raises more suspicions about cover-ups.A light shone through briefly when Tina Beaudry Meller stood up and voted yes. The light was quickly extinguished as she was loudly heckled by both sides of the house. Embarrassed, she quickly reversed her position claiming she had intended to vote ‘no’ but must have suffered a momentary lapse of consciousness. Her apparent change of heart appears to serve the purpose of those who wish to see the matter dropped.We continue to ask: why didn’t Gord Wyant and Tina Beaudry Meller do what they had promised when they were running for office and demand a vote for a public inquiry? Why are they now both towing the Sask Party line? Is there in fact wasn’t anything inappropriate that took place or, for that matter anything to hide, why won’t the Sask. Party open up the books and call for a Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit.BACKGROUND INFORMATIONThe original approved plan for the Regina Bypass established a northern leg along Tower Road which could provide routing for both north and south bound traffic to bypass the city in the same fashion as the Ring Road does today. However, after developers purchased land along Tower Road, a new preferred plan was unveiled in June 2013 that saw the Regina Bypass move 400 meters east of the original planned location at Tower Road. This resulted in the elimination of a northern leg to the bypass.As a result, the large amount of westbound truck traffic entering Regina bound for the commercial and industrial areas of the city, must still use the existing infrastructure. This has done nothing to relieve congestion or increased wear on roadways already stressed with truck and rail traffic in this part of the city. Instead, a plan was thrust into place with unprecedented haste which required the city to annex property 25 years ahead of schedule and in areas where no immediate needs would be served.A CONSPICUOUS FLURRY OF LAND SALES AND PURCHASES?Along Tower Road, developers purchased 640 acres of land in 2012. Shortly thereafter, in closed-door meetings with the government, these developers succeeded in persuading planners to move the Bypass 400 meters east of Tower Road. abandoning the originally planned and approved northern leg and accommodating their south east community plan developments.One of the beneficiaries of these changed plans was Long Lake Investments, (AKA: ‘L.L.I.’) a company which had recently purchased 500 acres along Tower Road and paid $12,125/acre totaling around $6 million dollars. It should be noted that Long Lake Investments owner Murad Al-Katib was on the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission as a director in 2011 and 2012 along with Mayor Pat Fiaco and Mayor Fougere. Mr. Al-Katib has served as chairman of the Regina Economic Development Board in 2013 until present.When the Regina Bypass was moved 400 meters east of Tower Road, it went 2 miles down the middle of Mr. Al-Katib’s recently acquired properties. Mr. Al-Katib’s company, (L.L.I) sold back 128 acres to the city for $85,000/acre. This represented an approximate seven-fold increase in value for land that only a short time earlier had not been considered useful until the bypass plans had undergone these ‘last-minute’ changes. As a result, a $4 million dollar profit was realized by L.L.I in an unprecedentedly short time periods.Long Lake Investments still had 372 acres of land in their possession from the original purchase, which now had no real cost to them as their original investment has been comfortably recovered within the large profits recorded following the sale of a portion of this land back to the city. The windfall continues as they are now selling parcels of the remaining land for $450,000/acre. When we do the math, that’s a 380% markup.Yet, another bewildering example of land resale transactions took place at White City. A local developer, Mr. Mauri Gwyn needed some land to build a fence and a burm along Highway No.1 and No.48. In 2011 the government sold him 7.4 acres at $20,000/acre totaling $150,000. Three years later, the same government bought back 2.4 acres of this property and paid $400,000/acre= $975,000 for less than 1/2 the amount of land that was sold to Mr. Gwyn previously. Mr. Gwyn realized a profit of $825,000, and still retains ownership of more than 1/2 the land he purchased from the buyers three years earlier. While this may not itself be illegal, as taxpayers shouldn’t we at least have some expectations for our governing authorities to limit these entitlements to windfall profits at our expense?WHO’S PAYINGIn February 2016, two months before the provincial election, investigative reporter Geoff Leo uncovered and reported on the controversial land transactions surrounding the GTH.The government needed 54 acres west of Regina to accommodate access for the new Bypass to the GTH. The land which at the time arguably could have been purchased by the city from the original owners at its current market value of $5-6,000/acre, was instead sold to an Alberta land developer, Mr. Robert Taupauff.At the time Mr. Taupauff made an offer to purchase a large quantity of land which surrounded and included that which was needed to accommodate the GTH. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Taupauff was able to sell part of this land to the province in a quickly expedited transaction (which was not registered with land titles at the time) appearing to have pocketed over $6 million in profits in the process.The optics of this series of purchases and sales suffer under scrutiny when it is revealed that Mr. Taupauff was the owner of land being rented by Sask. Party MLA, Mr. Bill Boyd. Mr. Boyd was the minister responsible for the GTH at the time.Finally, another developer and Sask. Party supporter, Mr. Anthony Marquart, purchased 204 acres of land adjacent to the planned bypass. In February 2014, Premier Brad Wall signed an Order in Council to pay Mr. Marquart $21.1 million dollars for the land in question. This amount in exchange for 4 times an amount needed for the bypass and at 20 times the rate that other land in the area was valued at. Yet another example of terrible optics. Does our government not realize hoe this makes them appear?The cost of the Regina Bypass has exploded from $400 million to now over $2 billion dollars. We now see the commercial developments along Tower Road, the Aurora Mall, Costco Store, CN Intermodal, and commercial buildings being constructed along the Regina Bypass.While we don’t object in principal to well planned growth and development, we have serious concerns about how this project appears to have been hijacked by a select group of individuals who may have had access to privileged information. If this access allowed them to manipulate government officials into sanctioning profiteering on a grand scale, we the taxpaying public need to have a voice in these decisions. The real issue is the source of funds being used to potentially enhance the personal wealth of a few well-placed individuals.AS TAXPAYERS FUNDING THESE INITIATIVES, WE DESERVE SOME REAL ANSWERS!
Laurie Pushor's appointment will not help restore AER’s scandalized reputation: MLAs Jennie Russell, Charles Rusnell · CBC News · Posted: Apr 06, 2020 7:00 AM MT | Last Updated: April 6The involvement of Laurie Pushor in the Saskatchewan scandal should disqualify him from his new position as CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator, opposition critics say. (Government of Saskatchewan)The newly-appointed chief executive officer of the Alberta Energy Regulator was a central figure in a Saskatchewan government land-deal scandal that cost taxpayers millions of dollars, was the subject of a scathing audit, and prompted an RCMP investigation. The cloud of doubt that still hangs over Laurie Pushor's involvement in the Saskatchewan scandal should have disqualified him from the position, opposition critics in both provinces say.And they say Pushor's past will make it difficult for the AER to restore its own reputation, which was seriously undermined in a much-publicized scandal involving self-dealing and lavish expenses by some of its now-former senior managers.'I was quite surprised to see that announcement the other day because I think Laurie Pushor's history here in Saskatchewan still has a lot of clouds of uncertainty and doubt hanging over it,' Saskatchewan Opposition NDP MLA Cathy Sproule said.'If you want to restore the transparency and the reputation of a regulator like the AER, I would think there are several other people in this country who would be much more qualified, with much more experience, that would be able to do the job very well,' said Sproule, who is her party's house leader and critic for the land-deal scandal.Alberta NDP energy critic Irfan Sabir said Pushor is clearly not the right person to lead the AER, especially as the organization tries to reform its governance and rehabilitate its image, while the industry is in crisis due to free-falling oil prices. 'This person brings baggage of his own, and the AER will have to spend time defending this person, defending their choice,' which he said will detract from the vital work that needs to be done now.Last week, the regulator announced that after a 'thorough and exhaustive competition,' it had appointed Pushor.Pushor was a central figure in a years-long Saskatchewan controversy involving the province-owned Global Transportation Hub (GTH).CBC News revealed that in 2014, the GTH bought 204 acres of land from a Regina developer for far more than its appraised value. That resulted in a $5-million profit for the developer's company. A few days later, the GTH sold some of that land to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways for less than half the price it had paid.As senior adviser to then-GTH minister Bill Boyd, Pushor negotiated the initial land deal with the Regina developer, who was a supporter of the ruling Saskatchewan Party.No charges after police investigationAs CBC News in Saskatchewan produced revelation after revelation, the GTH scandal roiled the legislature and the province for months.Boyd defended the deal by saying land prices in the area were increasing at the time and acquiring the land was critical for a planned highway bypass. But a 2016 report by Saskatchewan's provincial auditor confirmed the GTH had paid too much for the land and failed to have appropriate policies in place. The auditor found no evidence of fraud, wrongdoing, or conflict of interest within the organization, although the scope of the audit did not allow her to interview the developer or any other third parties, Sproule said.The RCMP began a criminal investigation of the land deals in February 2016, the same month CBC News published its initial report. Two years later, the RCMP announced that it and the Manitoba prosecutors reviewing the file had determined no criminal charges should be laid. Pushor left his position as Boyd's adviser in 2014 and immediately became Boyd's assistant deputy minister and then deputy minister of the economy. In March 2018 Pushor became deputy minister for energy and resources, a position he held until recently.The ruling Saskatchewan Party repeatedly blocked opposition attempts to call Pushor and others to testify before the province's public accounts committee about their roles in the scandal.Sproule, a former federal government lawyer, said the only way the full truth will be known is if the Saskatchewan NDP regain power because they would immediately hold a judicial inquiry.The AER declined both an interview request to its board chair and to Pushor. 'With regard to the GTH land deal, Mr. Pushor made the AER aware of the matter, and we are satisfied that a thorough investigation exonerated Mr. Pushor from any wrongdoing. We consider the matter closed,' an AER spokesperson said in an emailed statement.'The recruiting process for Mr. Pushor's position was led by interim Chair Bev Yee, during the interim board's tenure. The AER Board is responsible for hiring the AER's CEO subject to the approval of the Minister of Energy and Minister of Environment and Parks.'Pushor starts as CEO on April 15.Recent scandals at AERThe AER faced its own troubling scandal last year, well documented by reports issued in October 2019 by three provincial watchdogs: the auditor general, the public interest commissioner and the ethics commissioner.The reports concluded the AER wrongfully used its resources to establish another company outside its mandate, while former CEO Jim Ellis displayed 'reckless and wilful disregard' for the proper management of public funds.The independent commissioners determined the AER's board oversaw a regulator whose executives flew first class and stayed at $500-a-night hotels, plotted how to privatize the province's intellectual property, and spent millions of public dollars on a private venture in order to secure their future employment.A separate review by Alberta's auditor general confirmed, as first reported by CBC News, that Ellis and another senior AER executive commuted from their homes in British Columbia under work arrangements that were not properly approved and cost tens of thousands of dollars.Ellis also knowingly broke provincial compensation law by handing cash bonuses of $21,000 to two senior executives, the audit found.In some instances, the AER board knew of the behaviour and allowed it to happen, while at other times it was completely unaware of activities. Board members not only failed to provide oversight, they often didn't even question senior leadership.On Wednesday, less than a week after Pushor's appointment was announced, the UCP government said it had named seven new board members to 'bring a steady hand to the AER during these unprecedented economic times.'Critic questions new CEO's experienceBoth Sproule and Sabir question whether Pushor has the experience to lead the AER, given his relatively brief stint as Saskatchewan's deputy minister of energy.'I think any responsible board would have found someone with more qualifications and less scandal associated with his name,' Sproule said.Sabir also noted Pushor's paucity of oil-industry-related experience.'Quite frankly, it is disrespectful to Albertans that they wouldn't be able to find a person more qualified within Alberta to lead our energy sector [regulator.]'If you have information for this story, or information for another story, please contact us in confidence at document.write(''+'cbcinvestigates'+'@'+'cbc'+'.'+'ca.'+'');
Dear MLA Christine Tell,My name is Nestor Mryglod. I am a Principal owner of Super Seamless of Canada. I am writing to communicate concerns regarding the impact the new Highway #1 Regina Bypass project has had upon our business along with several other land owners adjacent to this new infrastructure. The following is a summary of the events which have prompted me to forward this letter and to publish it in an open public forum.In 2005 our company purchased an 11-acre tract of land alongside the Highway No.1 South Service Road adjacent to Tower Road. The city approved our plan and we began our expansion to construct a 200,000 square foot manufacturing plant on this site in 2010. We were aware that someday the Regina Bypass would be built on Tower Road as the ratified plans for the future bypass were available for inspection and those approved plans had been shown to us by the RM of Sherwood at the time we applied for our building permits. At the time we applied for permits to build on our site, we were assured that accepted practice regarding the approval of any changes would likely take several months if not years to implement. Our building plans were approved and we proceeded to order 2 pre-engineered buildings as per those approved plans.Traditionally, any potential changes were said to be subject to review by the planning departments of the R.M. of Sherwood, the City of Regina, and the Department of Highways. These approvals of our plans only reinforced our impression that no major changes to the Regina Bypass plan would be implemented in the areas for which these permits had been issued.Furthermore, we had been assured that no major changes were anticipated or even likely to be endorsed. We had been told that this plan had evolved after many years of engineering functional studies so we had no reason to believe or even suspect that such plans could be changed literally overnight. Sadly, we would be in for an unpleasant surprise.It was not until June of 2013 at a public open forum that we were made aware of a new ‘preferred plan’ for the Highway #1 Regina Bypass. The consultation process with potentially affected landowners in the path of these proposed changes had not taken place or even been facilitated. It was apparent that something (or someone) had succeeded in influencing to city to adopt changes to the existing plan with little if any attempts made to provide opportunity for feedback or the sharing of concerns from many landowners who would be affected by these changes. It was clearly apparent that these proposed changes would have significant negative impact on many owners, ourselves being a prime example.Only much later did we learn about ‘closed meetings’ which were held earlier in May of 2013 (one month prior to the public forum mentioned above) between the Government of Saskatchewan, the City of Regina, the RM of Sherwood, and major developers along Tower Road. It was at these meetings that a revised plan requiring the relocation of the eastern terminal of the new Regina Bypass 400 meters east of its originally proposed location on Tower Road.For our company this proposal resulted in several major points of contention.Our building project would have to be suspended as part of our property was directly in the path of the revised plan. This dictated that we no longer owned sufficient land to complete our expansion at that location. As a result, we were forced to abandon construction in midstream which had the effect of destroying the value of the capital investments we had made thus far. We suffered as a result of these dramatic effects in several ways. In the process of attempting to intervene in the implementation of this revised plan, we suffered the loss of our office administrator who experienced a massive stroke which we directly attribute to the stress brought about by this situation. Unlike a typical employee, she was a family member who had invested a major part of her life savings in our company and therefore had a vested interest in its success and survival. We could not afford to relocate to an equally accessible property without significantly more compensation than we were eventually offered. The increased employment potential that our expansion project would produce would now be forfeited. These were the factors which directly affected us, but there was another important factor that had an indirect but equally significant impact on other businesses and the city itself; The revised plan eliminated the possibility for a northern leg for the Regina Bypass. The revised plans had no provision for relieving the existing infrastructure in east Regina which was already overwhelmed by the traffic using the ring road and city streets in that part of the city. Many had been long-time advocates for this component due to the highest volume of westbound freight traffic entering Regina being destined for the commercial / industrial sectors in the northeast quadrant of the city.I want to clearly communicate what is at stake for us and others as a result of the New Regina Bypass location being arbitrarily imposed upon those whose livelihoods and futures have been severely impacted.Referring to point #4 above, we have learned that other land owners who had similar properties were offered exponentially larger amounts for their landholdings. Our research has revealed multiple instances of disproportionately higher values being paid to others whose land was similarly situated. These facts raise a number of questions as to the motives and beneficiaries behind the revised Regina Bypass plans.I will remind you that I contacted you in 2014 when we discovered the implications of the newly revised Regina Bypass Plan. We also sent letters to Premier Brad Wall and Highways Minister Don McMorris at the time questioning the rationale for the proposed changes. The only explanation we were offered was that it was the engineers who decided where the Regina Bypass would go.This prompted us to enquire with senior Highways engineers, and in documented and recorded conversations, these same engineers said that they did not agree with the relocation plan and that in their opinion it had been the developers who influenced the changes.We continued to work to uncover the truth behind these contradictory positions. We learned that many issues were in need of explanation. For example, our research revealed that Long Lake Investments’ Principal Murad Al-Katib, had purchased 500 acres of land along Tower Road in 2012. At that time, in 2011 Mr. Al-Katib was a director on the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission along with Mayor Pat Fiaco. In 2012 Mr. Al-Katib was again director of this organization with Mayor Michael Fougere.Mr. Al-Katib was able to purchase these 500 acres for $12,125.00/acre totalling $6 million dollars. A short time later, Mr. Al-Katib sold back 128 of those acres to the same government. His company received seven times more than was paid for the property resulting in a landfall profit of $8.4 million. Long Lake Investments now has 372 extra acres with effectively no cost that are now for sale for $375,000/acre. This represents a 3300% profit derived from transactions that have been orchestrated by a civic employee who is in partnership with the investors.To clarify, it is obvious that Mr. Al Katib could not have financed these transactions on the wages he collected as a public service employee. He would have needed backing from elsewhere which we understand was supplied by foreign investors. We are not disputing the premise that intelligent ideas for economic development are beneficial, especially when they attract outside investment in our province. We do however question the lack of transparency in these negotiations when they are done using taxpayer’s money resulting in a windfall for a public servant who has greatly benefited. When one factors in the last minute revisions to the Regina Bypass project that resulted in this windfall, the optics are poor to say the least. This is aggravated by the fact that other land transactions on both sides of the city appear to be tainted with similar misuse of privileged information by those in trusted public offices.If nothing else, as taxpayers we should be entitled to a full disclosure of the circumstances surrounding these and other transactions related to this project. The new Regina Bypass represents the largest infrastructure investment this province has ever made and as such represents a financial commitment that appears to have been mismanaged on several levels.Our research clearly revealed other examples of exploding values associated with land acquisitions surrounding the Bypass. These transactions took place suspiciously soon after they were purchased. These purchases were initially made by those with close ties to elected officials, at least two of which resigned their public offices soon after these properties were purchased. Questions arise when these transactions were completed by the very same government agencies which these elected officials were responsible to oversee.We discovered that Harvard Developments had purchased 141 acres of land right on the corner of Tower Road and Highway No.1 from Gulf Flying J in 2012. We learned that Gulf Flying J had previously tried to get approval to build a truck stop at this location but were repeatedly told by the city that there were no plans to provide infrastructure in that area for what could amount to another 25 years or more. Based on the city’s communication Gulf Flying J chose to sell the property to Harvard Developments. Shortly thereafter, the newly completed Aurora Retail development now sits on fully serviced facilities 20 years ahead of schedule.This is yet another example of how official policy appears to have been influenced without consideration for due process or appropriate communication. City officials failed to provide adequate notice of intent to others who would be affected by these last minute changes. The notice that was provided communicated what was apparently that of a ‘fait accomplee’.The decisions had already been made.This would support the comments earlier referenced from the senior Department of Highways engineers that the major influencers for last minute revisions came from the developers. This is an inconvenient truth as it directly contradicts the official line given to the public when the city administration was questioned on this matter. It became increasingly frustrating to get clear and transparent communication from any official source responsible for the Regina Bypass project. As a result we are not alone in having depended on what was represented as ‘highly unlikely to change’ as a factor in determining future plans and major investment decisions. We feel we have been misled and manipulated by those whose influence is greater and whose interests are being served at our expense.What about alternative solutions?We spoke with Brandt Developments about the location of the Regina Bypass. They told us that they had met with the government in 2013 when they discovered that their access would be impacted with the Regina Bypass long Tower Road. They took a plan to the government to move the Regina Bypass to Gravel Pit Road outside the City. This plan would have placed the Regina Bypass right beside your families land holdings. They included in their plan the estimated costing to move the Regina Bypass that would have saved Saskatchewan taxpayers 25% of $100 million back in 2012 when the Regina Bypass had a price tag of only $400 million. For reasons that only became clear later, this proposal was never acted upon. When we questioned the owner of Brandt about the status of his alternative plan, he indicated to us that the proposal had been shelved and that he had made his own dea. It should be noted that Brandt at one point had threatened to relocate outside the province in response to the proposed changes. We are only left to speculate about the concessions that must have been given to Brandt that resulted in a reversal of his position. “Business in the park” comes to mind as a project that was later the subject of some controversy.At one point the government seemed to be in favor of the Gravel Pit Road alternative and was advocating its consideration. For some reason this dialogue ceased and was never part of the agenda in open public forums. We contend that those open forums were not well publicized in the first place.It remains a point of contention that the efforts to notify those stakeholders that would be affected by these changes were at best only partly effective. We can only speculate that this alternative was unpalatable to others who would be negatively affected by it. This would be potentially true in the case of the Tell family holdings, and we can readily identify with those kind of concerns. It is apparent that some dialogue must have taken place among the stakeholders in this area, but that dialogue was never part of the public record.It is obvious to those who have followed the events surrounding this project that a compromise was needed with Brandt to ensure they would remain in Regina. We agree that Brandt is a valuable asset to our local economy and should be fairly accommodated. It would appear that Brandt has had their concerns addressed and the precedent has been established to facilitate a valued employer in our province.We wonder however, why the same principles have not been applied in dealing with other companies who also contribute to the economic diversity and growth of our community? While we do not have the same footprint as a Brandt or a Cindercrete, we still represent a viable business with growth potential that has suffered a disproportionate impact on the future of our business and the additional employment that we had planned to provide as a result of these changes to the original plans.We started our own investigations, talking to stakeholders, doing research, and writing letters to the government. We soon discovered that no one agreed with the location of the Regina Bypass. Harvard Developments and Long Lake Investments who had purchased 640 acres of land along Tower Road appeared to be the only companies that had no objections to these revised plans. The fact that two subsequent Regina mayors also appeared to have close associations with one of these companies does nothing to dispel concerns of collusion among civic officials and prominent developers.Eighty percent of the land required for the Regina Bypass was located in the RM of Sherwood. The RM strongly objected to the location of the Regina Bypass and thought the process was flawed as the stakeholders were not involved in the discussions. The RM tried to organize a meeting of all of the stakeholders in the RM that would be impacted by the Regina Bypass. Just before this meeting was to take place, suddenly the Reeve, Kevin Eberly, was fired and there was a probe into his conflict of interest, this probe turned into a closed inquiry. During this time, an interim Reeve, Neil Robertson, was appointed as legal counsel for the City of Regina. This represented another potential conflict of interest resulting in no consensus being achieved through any public forum.To further add to the list of inconsistencies, another unusual land transaction occurred close to the town of White City. In 2011 the Government of Saskatchewan sold 7.45 acres at the intersection of Highway #1 and #48 to Mauri Gwyn Developments for $20,000 per Acre. This land had been owned by Highways for decades, and was effectively useless land, given the location. In 2015, the government repurchased 2.45 acres of this property back from Mr. Gwynn, and paid a whopping $400,000 per acre, or 20 times more than they had sold the land for a few years prior.This raises questions for any taxpayer whose funds are being used to finance these transactions. It should be noted that land right across the highway was expropriated for a significantly lower value, between 15 and 25 times less per acre!The questions that beg to be answered are clear. Why is there such discrepancy in land prices when dealing with our various levels of government? ..and ..Where is the accountability to the taxpayers whose funds are being used to make these purchases?At this point I have confined my comments to the issues arising on the east side of the city. Our research shows that similar inconsistencies are evident at the opposite end of this project surrounding the GTH.Most people are aware that the GTH has has been the focus of controversy and potential scandal for years. In the beginning, the Department of Highways needed 54 acres of land for the section of the Regina Bypass that would be constructed alongside the GTH. The government could have exercised their prerogative to expropriate the land needed at the time from the original owners for $5,750 an acre which was the market value based on what similar lands were being expropriated for at the time. Instead, the government ended up paying $103,000 per acre for this land.The most troubling aspect of this land purchase exists with its history of ownership. Two prior transactions took place shortly before these properties were purchased by the provincial government. Mr. Robert Tappauf, a land buyer from Alberta acquired property which would soon become essential to the Regina Bypass project. Mr. Tappauf made an offer to purchase, and then flipped the land overnight directly to another land developer, Mr. Anthony Marquart netting around $6 million profit. Mr. Marquart in turn resold 204 acres to our provincial government for an additional profit of $5 million.It has been noted that Mr. Tappauf rents over 2200 acres of land to Bill Boyd, the former Deputy Premier and the Minister responsible for the GTH at the time. One cannot help but speculate as to how the information about the future Regina Bypass plan was being handled and by whom?Mr. Marquart was offered 20 times more than other landowners in the areas along Highway No.1 and Pinkie Road. The same government agencies who paid Mr. Marquart had offered other land owners in the area amounts based on the appraised values they had established for these properties. Those values were significantly lower than what had been paid to Mr. Marquart. When these land owners wouldn’t accept the lesser offers their land was then expropriated. Something is wrong with this picture.It is a matter of public record that Premier Wall, eventually signed an Order in Council to pay over $21 million for this land on February 27, 2014. When using the value of the land expropriated from the landowners along Pinkie Road and Highway No.1, the 54 acres of land needed for the Regina Bypass should have been worth approximately $315,000. This would imply that the government was somehow manipulated into overpaying about $21 million for this property. Sadly, the landowners along Highway No.1 and Pinkie Road have been forced into legal actions to try to get more than $5,750 an acre, and will inevitably spend years in court. Regardless of the outcome, which is uncertain at best for these land owners, there is likely to be an increased cost to the taxpayer for the legal actions that have resulted from this debacle.Furthermore, when called upon to address these very serious concerns, the Premier’s office decided that it would be best to call for a Process Audit, rather than a Forensic Audit, or an RCMP investigation.Presumably, it should be well known that process audits would only confirm that all of the T’s were crossed and all the I’s were dotted. They do nothing to expose any malfeasance or collusion among those who had access to privileged information or who might influence the planning and development process without public discussion and consultation.We took our information to the RCMP when they were conducting their investigation into the GTH. In September 2018, the RCMP reported that in consultation with Manitoba Prosecution Services, they had completed their investigation of the land dealings in and around the GTH. The investigation spanned two and a half years and dedicated 7500 hours.They stated that all of the information they relied on was freely provided to them, and that their investigation never met the threshold to subpoena evidence. As such, it was recommended that no criminal charges be laid.One cannot help but wonder what their mandate for the investigation was? Only reviewing records of land transactions which were freely provided by those involved does not necessarily shed light on the events leading up to those transactions.Our last line of defense is the RMCP who are supposed to be an independent body protecting the rights of citizens in our country and enforce the laws. They closed the file and didn't even look at the Tower Road and White City land scandals. The RCMP investigation that was completed only on the GTH land transactions has left many wondering how the RCMP could close the file on something that appears to be so blatantly wrong?When Gord Wyant was campaigning for Premier of Saskatchewan, he promised to call for a Public Inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub land transactions regardless of the RCMP’s decision not to press any charges. He is on record as stating; “We need it to shine a very, very bright light on this and the only way to do that is to give the commissioner the power that he needs not only to compel witnesses, documents and testimonies but to make some findings so that we can put this whole thing behind us as a party.” He went on to say: “There are unanswered questions for me. I am a citizen of this province and weather I am a member of the government or not there are some troubling things about this. At the end of the day we need to clear the air so that the people are made comfortable with what happened.”To date, (almost two years later) no further comments from Mr. Wyant have been made. Anyone following this string of events finds this to be compelling evidence that any further investigations into these matters has been suppressed. The only comments that have been offered have been to dismiss the entire subject as having no substance based on the RCMP’s implied exoneration of the participants. We have repeatedly been told that “there is no smoking gun”. While that phrase suggests that there is nothing wrong, it fails to acknowledge that there have been serious wounds inflicted on several individuals and on our public purse. While no ‘smoking gun’ was discovered, there is still ‘blood on the ground’ emanating from the unfair and inconsistent treatment that many have received.A company from France, Vinci, is responsible for building the Regina Bypass. The Regina Bypass is a P3 Project that was tendered out to 3 contractors, , Vinci, SNC-Lavalin and Hochtief-AECOM. Vinci won the bidding for the general construction contract and 30-year maintenance of the project. Vinci has been linked to scandals across Europe including money laundering, bribery, and human rights violations. With recent revelations regarding SNC-Lavalin, we’re not sure if we are giving the lesser of two evils our hard-earned tax dollars.Are our legislators unable to see the obvious ethical questions that might arise surrounding their decisions when awarding these multimillion dollar contracts?The question that everyone asks is; Why the Government of Saskatchewan did not use Saskatchewan road and bridge builders to build the Regina Bypass? Apparently, even though we now have some parts of this new infrastructure that cannot accommodate farm machinery or some over-sized transports, we are assured that the decision to award this project to a foreign company was in our best interests. We can only hope that the reasons for this would pass closer scrutiny in light of all the controversy surrounding other aspects of this project. Sadly, we have seen some local contractors in the industry close their doors in recent months. Many would agree that our current economic climate is volatile enough without exporting our resources such as tax revenue and jobs outside the province of Saskatchewan.The 2017 budget saw crown corporations being sold off, essential government services cut, the shutdown of STC, and an increase to the PST. Not only was it raised to 6%, it was also imposed on the construction and service industries. These were sectors that were already forced to adjust to new regulations imposed by Ottawa.The resulting impact on the local economy has been devastating. It has become far more difficult for first-time home buyers to qualify for a mortgage. The resulting effect has been immediate and painful. Nearly every contractor and supplier has been forced to lay off employees and scale back their operations. For sale or lease signs have proliferated in our commercial / industrial sector at an unprecedented rate. Finally, we now have a federally imposed carbon tax which has added to the cost of every household’s operation. In short, the economic climate in this province is experiencing severe stress.This hightens concerns surrounding the cost of the Regina Bypass being a contributing factor to our present provincial debt. The cost of the Regina Bypass exploded from $63 million in 2007, to $400 million in 2012, then $800 million, then $1.2 billion and finally ended at greater than $2 billion. These costs still do not include the price of land acquisitions! While we have heard attempts to justify these cost increases with the argument that the scope of the Bypass has expanded over the years, it does not negate the fact that these are valued tax dollars that were siphoned from the treasury resulting in many other needed items becoming axed with the 2017 budget.The ‘scope’ of the Regina Bypass has always been to provide an alternative route around Regina for through travelers in order to alleviate congestion, and improve safety along Victoria Avenue and Highway No.1 East. Ironically, the project envisioned in 2007 for $400 Million would have done just that. As it expanded, however, the scope appears to have morphed into an economic development opportunity, and is far less about providing a safe and cost-effective alternative route around the City of Regina for today’s west-bound traffic entering the city. Most of this traffic is destined for locations in the northeast commercial/industrial areas of Regina en route to Saskatoon and Edmonton.At this time and for the foreseeable future, westbound traffic beyond Regina continues to be less than northbound traffic entering the city. Further aggravating this situation is the failure of the GTH infrastructure on the west side of the city to gain traction and attract the industrial clientele we were promised would appear. No doubt this area is designed to accommodate industrial and commercial expansion but at this point that is likely to be many years from now, if at all.Public perception is important. When one considers the observations above, many questions arise concerning the credibility of the communications (or lack thereof) that have emanated from our current legislators. When no answers are being offered that address these specific concerns, it paints a picture of either deliberate ignorance or a conscious intention to bury these facts from taxpayers and hide behind the rhetoric of ‘no smoking gun’ as is often repeated. It appears that the priorities of expenditures have been heavily influenced by plans to accommodate developers and land speculators while ignoring the more immediate and practical needs of many existing businesses in our community. The lack of willingness to engage and communicate on the part of our elected officials only fuels the fires of skepticism.Please indulge me while I provide some useful information. A comparison has been made between another recent major infrastructure project in western Canada and the new Regina Bypass. The Coquihalla Highway in B. C. was the largest highway project ever undertaken in North America at the time it was built. It was completed with a cost of $848 million in 1990.If we adjust for inflation, today’s price would be $1.68 billion. This project spanned 20 months and was built through mountains, caverns and rivers in three phases over 324 kilometers in length. It included 20,000 tons of steel, 125,000 tons of concrete, 160 kilometers of guard rail, 38 bridges, 18 interchanges, and 19 overpasses. Engineers had to clear and strip 1700 hectares of land, remove 2 million truckloads of overburden and nearly 4 million tonnes of gravel. Over one million tons of asphalt had to be crushed and graded.Pipelines and railroads needed to be crossed and relocated more than 50 times. Reinforced earth walls were built to retain sections of roadbed and river diversions were designed and implemented to improve fish habitats, deflect flood torrents and protect against avalanches, none of which are concerns in Saskatchewan. This enormous project employed 10,600 people directly and created 16,000 spin-off jobs.In comparison, the Regina Bypass was built on flat prairie land and required no rock blasting, not having to fill valleys or reinforce earth walls, no river systems had to be manipulated and rebuilt. This project is much smaller in scope and difficulty than the Coquihalla Highway. The Regina Bypass includes 12 overpasses, 40 kilometers of new highway, 20 kilometers of resurfaced highway, 55 kilometers of service roads and twinning about 5 kilometers of highway No.6. How is it that the Regina Bypass, a project that is less than the shadow of the Coquihalla cost over $2 Billion Dollars?The standard argument in defense of this cost is the nature of the P3 component of maintenance for the next 30 years. While this stipulation appears reasonable from one perspective, it fails to disclose the real costs of each component of the overall price taxpayers are being asked to bear. It is well documented that P3 projects throughout the country have not been as cost effective as were initially thought. In point of fact, many have resulted in significantly higher costs than would otherwise have been accrued. We need to see the calculations of these costs which justify sending our tax dollars overseas for the next 30 years.It is also noted that these estimates do not take into account the costs of moving collateral infrastructure such as pipelines, power lines, gas lines and phone lines which had to be modified numerous times throughout the construction process. When these costs are factored in, the estimates go up by another $3 or $400 million dollars which has not been factored into the costs being reported. In summary, Saskatchewan taxpayers have legitimate questions about the real value they are getting for their money.Over the last 6 years we have spent over 20,000 hours researching, writing letters, and doing everything possible to lobby the government to get fair compensation for our business which was destroyed when the Regina Bypass was moved 400 meters from Tower Road. We feel we have been targeted by the government because we would not accept the comparatively meager amount they offered to pay us for our property.In 2014 we presented a petition to the government calling for them to rethink the location of the Regina Bypass. The NDP opposition did not bring up our petition in any session of the legislature. We have subsequently gone to our MLAs both in the Sask. Party and NDP Party with no result. We have attended public events, advertised our story in many venues and turned to printed media where we published this information.This has resulted in positive feedback from a diverse local audience in Saskatchewan.In short, we have done everything we could to create public awareness. Many agree that the public purse appears to have been abused.The absence of any response from our elected officials continues to fuel the fires of suspicion that this story is being deliberately suppressed. Both the government and mainstream media have not been receptive in either listening to our concerns or asking the crucial questions that remain unanswered about the land acquisitions and subsequent rationale justifying these expenditures. We have been barred from public events such as the Cathedral Village Festival and other parades. We were denied access to the opening of the ReginaBypass and were told to leave as we were talking to Xavier Hulliard, the President of Vinci.The burning question for us is: Why are we being ignored and our questions being swept under the rug? Have we lost our understanding of what it means to be a democratic society? Do we not deserve answers that make sense?We feel it's relevant to mention that (now-retired former Premier) Brad Wall, (now-retired), former Minister responsible for the GTH) Bill Boyd and former Finance Minister Kevin Doherty (also now retired) were all members of the Grant Devine government several members of which were convicted of criminal activity. Oddly enough, all three of these gentlemen resigned more than two years before the ends of their elected terms and shortly after the RCMP announced that their Federal Criminal Operations Division would be delving into the highly dubious GTH land schemes which excessively enriched a pair of the provincial government's private sector associates.Thousands of people have been negatively impacted by the Regina Bypass. People are losing their land, homes, businesses, ballpark, accesses, life's work, health, history and futures. Over the last few years we have learned that there are six people in our small area who are suffering from terminal illnesses. We have no doubt that the stresses experienced as their lives were disrupted by the new Regina Bypass have contributed greatly to their overall health concerns.I attended the Premier's Dinner in 2015 in hopes that I could set up a meeting with Premier Brad Wall to discuss how we could salvage our business plans. Instead of being met with helpfulness, Premier Wall warned me to be very careful about what I was saying about his MLAs and specifically referenced your name as a potential litigant.Two weeks later, after just completing a letter to Premier Wall, the champion of the cause, my sister Sylvia, brought it to my desk and collapsed in my arms. Sylvia fell into a two-month coma and has been living in Wascana paralyzed on half of her body for the last four years. Sylvia did not deserve this; no one does.In summary, our 40 year old metal building product business had great potential to add value to our community in several ways. We had imported specialized equipment which would facilitate the manufacturing of insulated steel exterior cladding and siding for which a ready market across North America was available. Our state of the art ‘green technology’ now sits in containers unused for the last several years as we have nowhere to house it in an operational facility. The accompanying added employment that was planned for this expansion has also become a victim of these poorly handled processes. We were bulldozed through by our local authorities without consideration or consultation. The costs to us have been dramatic and insurmountable.I choose to avoid any libelous implications in my public statements. I only ask the questions that I believe deserve answers. That is why I am communicating to you in this form. I am publishing this as an open letter in the hope that you will respond.The issues of accountability and responsibility from our elected officials when handling public money are critical and fundamental. Whether they are elected or appointed, we should expect a high ethical standard of practice and conduct from them.It is apparent that if we relax our vigilance in these areas, we will pay the price of our complacency. Avarice and greed will always be with us, but that does not mean we should remain unprotected from their consequences. We believe that is what our elected leaders are supposed to be doing. Have we gotten this wrong?I again implore you to reflect upon the information being offered in this letter. We have spent over 20,000 hours in research and have accumulated an archive of documentation and recorded conversations all of which point to a lack of transparency and a need for accountability in answering the questions that arise from our investigations. We only document the facts and they speak loudly for themselves.It seems we are repeating a cycle that has been seen before and needs to be dealt with. The often quoted aphorist Georges Santayana, said it well in the previous century when he wrote: “…Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”It’s time to demand accountability, transparency and real advocacy from our elected officials. We are the people who must bear the cost of these mistakes. If we fail to engage in the process, we will continue to be victims.We are asking you, Christine Tell, our MLA in Wascana Plains, where our business is located, please help us to get our business back on track. We would welcome any opportunity to have a meaningful, open and candid discussion.Yours truly,Nestor Mryglod
In June 2013, we attended a Public Open Forum on the new Regina Bypass. We discovered that the approved plan had been replaced with a new preferred plan to move the Regina Bypass 400 meters east of Tower Road. This news came to us after we started our business expansion plans in 2010 when we got approval to build on our property off Tower Road.This new plan effectively destroyed our business expansion plans. We started the Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road to lobby the government. We started researching, writing letters, advertising, and trying to inform the public. We wanted to discover what the science was behind the government’s decision to build an outdated, dysfunctional, seriously flawed, unsafe, $2 billion dollar, developer influenced, dead end Regina Bypass partially within City limits that cannot go north around the city to the commercial industrial business district.When we started our efforts we had no idea that we were about to embark on the biggest fight of our life. We were never consulted or invited to the closed door meetings that determined our fate. The way we saw it, we had two options, we could have said, 'You can’t fight City Hall' and just shut down our business and admit that we had wasted the last 30 years of our lives. Or, we could make up our minds then and there that we were going to dig in and fight to stay alive. When we started digging into the strange circumstances we discovered that we were not the only ones, thousands of people have been impacted. People have lost their land, homes, businesses, ball park, access, health, history, and future. People along Tower Road, who were never properly consulted, were literally bulldozed through by the government’s relentless expropriators. At least half a dozen people in the vicinity of Tower Road are now battling terminal illnesses. The extreme stresses they’ve been subjected to have certainly contributed to their problems. It didn’t take us long to realize that we hadn’t taken up the fight for our own personal benefit but we did it to stand up for all of those people who no longer had the strength the fight.We did everything we could think of. We tried to engage the Sask Party, the Opposition Party, the media, volunteers, other organizations. The only response we got from the Sask. Party was that it was the engineers who decided where the Bypass should go. In documented and recorded conversations with Senior Engineers with the Department of Highways, they told us that they did not agree with the location of the eastern leg of the Regina Bypass. They even confirmed our suspicious by speculating that it was the developers who influenced the decision to move the location.We have tried to engage the NDP Opposition Party over the last several years. We first approached them in 2014 and asked them to present our petition for the Sask. Party to put a hold on the Regina Bypass and to reevaluate the location. We were promised that our petition would be read into the legislature on budget day. There we were, on budget day in the stands of the legislature waiting for the petition to be read. We sat there the entire time hopeful that the NDP would follow through on their promise. We were surprised that when the session was our there had been no mention of our petition.More recently, in the 2019 spring session the NDP brought up our petition for a Judicial Public Inquiry and a Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal several times. We kept pressing them to hold a press conference afterwards but they refused. We have written several letters to our MLA's Nicole Sarauer, Yens Pederson and NDP Leader Ryan Meili requesting to meet with them to discuss how they can help in our efforts. Almost all letters have gone unanswered. Why wont the NDP do their job and represent their constituents who voted for them to speak on their behalf?We have spoken to almost every media outlet we can think of to no avail. We have written hundreds of letters to the Editor with only a handful ever being published. Fortunate, three journalists have been brave enough to write articles exposing the Regina Bypass Land Scandal namely, Geoff Leo CBC, Leader Post Columnist Murray Mandryk, and Leader Post reporter Wyant Mantyka has been kind enough to offer us a few interviews. We have done several rounds of radio advertising, we have done paid advertisements in local newspapers and magazines and for just over the last year we have been publishing almost weekly articles in the Compass Magazine. Some of the most important headlines are as follows:REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDAL COVER UPThe RCMP closed their West Regina Bypass/GTH land dealings case file and announced they won’t be disclosing the science behind their investigations. But we have no doubt that far greater economic wrongdoings were committed on the eastern edges of our City where two major private enterprise developers purchased 640 acres of land alongTower Road after the Regina Highway No.1 Regina Bypass routing was already approved to go North and South around the City at Tower Road. The RCMP disclosed that they never reached the threshold to subpoena evidence or execute any search warrants. They also mentioned that the documents deemed necessary for the investigation were freely provided to them by the parties being investigated and that as such no charges will be laid.We all calling on all people who live, work and pay taxes in Saskatchewan to rally together and help rein in what appear to be significant expense decisions made without disclosure or accountability. It is the taxpayers of Saskatchewan who must carry the financial burden for these decisions made without any disclosure of the details in advance. The optics of these transactions are so poor that we wonder why any elected official would not be concerned when they realized how the facts would reflect upon them as this became known to the general public. When exposed to the light of day, it is hard to avoid thinking of these expenditures as anything other than conniving politicians and their insatiably greedy corporate sector friends appearing to help themselves to vast sums of our public funds.IT SNOWED ON OUR PARADEOn a mild and calm mid November morning, our HighwayRobbery.org team got together to decorate our P3 Cruiser in preparation for its ride in Regina’s 33rd Annual Santa Claus Parade. Our entry was approved for the event; and the P3’s registered theme was a take on Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas story. We drove our decked-out vehicle to the parade’s staging side street and we were politely directed to our assigned parking spot. The parade was scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m., so during the wait we met and spoke with other parade participants.Apparently though, not everyone was excited with our vehicle’s decorative themes. We knew our esteemed provincial political leaders had also registered a vehicle for the parade. Their vehicle, displaying a prominent Sask. Party MLA’s name and his constituency, stopped alongside our vehicle for over a minute. It then it moved off to its assigned parking spot. About 15 minutes later, just 5 minutes before the parade’s start, we were suddenly approached by two of the event’s officials who abruptly told us we had to leave the scene. They said us our entry “wasn’t ‘Christmas-ey’ enough.” It should be noted that the Sask. Party’s high horsepower sedan was decked-out with exactly ZERO “Christmas-ey” decorations. However, out of respect for the parade’s sponsors, we did pull out of the festivities. The 33rd Annual Santa Claus Parade was not the first time our P3 Cruiser ran directly into this problem.We entered into the Regina Cathedral Village Arts Festival street fair in 2018. All was going well until one of our colleagues reported that a Sask. Party MLA had been scowling at our colorful displays; and about 20 minutes after that walk-by-scowling a few event officials descended upon us to demand that we pack up and immediately leave the (PUBLIC) street. They were soon joined by an angry Regina Police Service. But then, a well known human rights lawyer stepped into the fray and calmly relayed to the event officials -- and to the angry RPS constable as well -- all the reasons why we had the right to continue on with our campaign. Thanks to the timely intervention of that man-on-the-street lawyer, we were allowed to stay in the fair for the rest of that day.Then, in mid August we drove our P3 Cruiser up to Saskatoon to park it at the Rock 102 Show & Shine auto event. As we flipped through the Show & Shine booklet we noticed that one of the event’s major sponsors was a Saskatoon- based auto sales dealership owned by the brother of an influential Sask. Party minister; so we predicted our time at this rally would most likely be brief. And sure enough, an event official soon arrived to steer us to the closest exit. And since there wasn’t a human rights lawyer in sight, we once again rolled our P3 Cruiser out of yet another Sask. Party affiliated affair.SHOULD OLD ACQUAINTANCES BE FORGOTOur No.1 unanswered question of 2018 is: Who reeled in and reprogrammed Gordon Wyant – Saskatchewan’s current Deputy Premier and Minister of Education – during the early weeks of 2018? Mr. Wyant, the one-time straight talking legislator who confidently entered the Sask. Party leadership race in late summer 2017, routinely told his campaign rally audiences that he “… would hold a public inquiry on the GTH land deals no matter what the RCMP investigation concluded [because] there are unanswered questions for me.” And, during an early September 2017 interview with CBC Saskatchewan, he emphatically stated: “I’m a citizen of this province whether I’m a member of government or not. There are some troubling things about this and at the end of the day we need to clear the air so that people are made comfortable with what happened. If charges aren’t preferred then there’s going to be a report that’s tendered to the director of public prosecutions which isn’t going to be made public and that doesn’t do anything to clear the air. We need to shine a very, very bright light on this and the only way to do that is to give the commissioner the power that he needs not only to compel witnesses and to compel documents and testimony but to make some findings so that we can put this whole thing behind us as a party.”Then, on November 17 of 2017, Mr. Wyant reconfirmed to the crowd gathered in Regina’s Ramada Plaza Hotel that he would most definitely push for a comprehensive public inquiry because there was such “…a cloud of suspicion over the government and the party.” And near the end of that rally he quietly approached myself and one of my colleagues and promised that he would schedule a private meeting early in the New Year to further discuss his plans for a future public inquiry.Two days later, on November 19, we received an email from “Gord Wyant”. That email contained Mr. Wyant’s leadership campaign form letter; and it effectively introduced the candidate and his political platform, positions and perspectives. We were especially impressed by the below subheading and its three ambitious points:Increased transparency:A public inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub will be initiated once the RCMP investigation has concluded.The powers within the Conflict of Interest Act will be strengthened to ensure the Conflict of Interest Commissioner can investigate potential issues more thoroughly and resolve them more quickly.Independent officers of the Legislature will be asked for recommendations on ways to strengthen legislation, enhance disclosure mechanisms, and create a more open and accountable government.Regrettably, our follow-up emails and letters to Mr. Wyant were never answered or acknowledged.Last summer Mr. Wyant reconnected with a national award-winning journalist. In his July 26, 2018 CBC Saskatchewan News story titled Deputy Premier Backs Away From Campaign Call for GTH Inquiry Following RCMP Probe, Geoff Leo reported, “Gord Wyant says he supports the government’s position to move on, despite what he promised during the leadership bid. He would not repeat that strident call for a detailed public review of the controversial deals, instead saying he’s satisfied with the RCMP investigation.”Is there any chance Mr. Wyant was taken aside by the Sask. Party’s damage control specialists and sternly told that he needed to fall into line and to start marching to their protectionist orders because his propensity to freely speak his own mind and to freely express his own opinions could lead to a breach in their Wall-of-Silence and- Secrets? And, is there any chance whatsoever that his Deputy Premier and Minister of Education appointments were granted in exchange for his promise to perform as just another line-fed and well-rehearsed political player?HIGHWAY ROBBERY THE REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDALFor several years, the plan for the new Regina Bypass had been in place and was available for public inspection before it was actually begun. Traditionally, any proposed changes were subject to a process which required full disclosure along with the opportunity for any affected to express their concerns or ask questions. Any proposed changes were assumed to be subject to this process. Such proposals, we were told, would be subject to study and review by the planning departments of both the city and the Department of Highways. It was indicated to us that accepted practice regarding the approval of any changes would likely take several months -if not years, to implement due to the various factors involved. As a result, we and others formulated our future plans for development based on the Regina Bypass plan that had been put in place at that time. We had no indication that this process could, or would be interfered with. We had been assured that major changes were not anticipated or likely to be endorsed.Our company, Super Seamless of Canada, made commitments to contractors and suppliers with the intention of establishing a new manufacturing facility. We had planned to contribute new employment and much-needed diversification for our local economy. Regina would have been home to a source of manufactured products which would be shipped throughout North America.. While our particular circumstances were unique, we were not the only land owners with vested interests in the original bypass plan. We had accepted in good faith that what had been laid out under the aforementioned process would not be subjected to any further major alterations. Sadly, we would be in for an unpleasant surprise.As a Principal owner of Regina’s Super Seamless of Canada, I feel compelled to explain why we are so determined to draw attention to the contentious circumstances that ultimately led to the drastically revised version of the Regina Trans-Canada Highway No. 1 Regina Bypass. We want the public to know who we are; what we had intended to achieve; and why we believe certain civic and provincial political authorities have unfairly prevented us from achieving our primary business expansion goals.Our family has strived for 40 years to operate a dependable, state of the art, industry leading business here in Regina. We have had to overcome many pitfalls and obstacles throughout the years so that our unique lines of exterior cladding products could continually be improved and modernized. Our products address both environmental and durability concerns, and they are aesthetically superior to any other products designed for similar applications. Our four decades of successes, failures, and challenges have greatly sharpened our business survival instincts and our problem-solving skills. Our ability to adapt to constantly evolving industry trends and economic fluctuations drive our willingness to pursue new and emerging opportunities within our chosen profession.We have taken on tremendous levels of risk over our 40-year run, as evidenced by the many upgrades we completed at our Exterior Finish Manufacturing Plant to ensure that Super Seamless of Canada would remain a service leader to the Residential, Commercial, Architectural and Agricultural building markets in Saskatchewan and Western Canada.Ten years ago we identified viable markets for our products within a large number of regions throughout the United States and Canada. So, we began to make extensive plans to take advantage of this potentially very lucrative opportunity. Our goal was to establish Regina as the manufacturing home base for insulated metal siding products that would ship all over the continent. We projected our expansion ambitions would eventually employ over 200 full-time employees.We were able to utilize an 11-acre tract of land we purchased alongside the Highway No.1 South Service Road (just a short distance east of Tower Road) in 2005 and began our expansion in 2010. We were well aware that someday the Regina Bypass would be built on Tower Road. The plans for that reality had already been in place for some time following countless government-commissioned studies and consultations. We selected our new site based on this information.However, shortly after our expansion efforts had begun we were served with a Notice of Land Expropriation that stated portions of our front and back property would be taken, leaving us with 9 acres of the original 11- acre tract. Despite our protests, four days after the Notice of Land Expropriation was served bulldozers arrived to plow through portions of what had been our property, destroying our building products and pallets – which were hastily hauled away to the City of Regina Landfill.IS OUR GOVERNMENT A PUPPET TO OMNIPOTENT DEVELOPERSThe decision that no charges will be laid in the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) and Scandal investigations marks an all-time low point in the history of democracy and human rights in Saskatchewan. From our well-researched perspective, it appears the RCMP are attempting to whitewash the (alleged) criminal actions at the blackened core of the GTH land transactions, which seemed to have been driven by a fraudulent series of land buying and selling (and overnight flipping) schemes that ultimately filled the pockets of private sector friends of the provincial government with $11 Million Dollars of taxpayer monies. And based on the RCMP’s no charges-will-be-laid decision, apparently there is nothing at all wrong with any of those proceedings.We absolutely believe that at least a handful of our provincial government leaders have shamefully violated their own Code of Ethical Conduct For Members of the Legislative AssemblyHere are the facts: Bill Boyd was the minister responsible for the GTH in early 2012 when Robert Tappauf (an Alberta land baron who rents farmland to Boyd at Kindersley, Saskatchewan) made an offer to purchase a total of 204 acres of land from two property owners, who were situated between the GTH and the West Regina Bypass. The day after his purchase was finalized in early 2013 Mr. Tappauf earned himself a rather excessive net profit of $6 million dollars when he sold (aka flipped) that plot of land to Anthony Marquart (another Sask. Party-friendly developer/speculator).So, where are we now? For more than a decade our ‘transparent and fair-to-all’ democratic government has spun and spewed out numerous redacted tall tales. The following bullet points briefly overview just some of the unjust situations that have been created by the woefully bloated Regina Bypass project:The bypass’s original projected cost of $400 million has now exploded to over $2 billion, and many analysts believe the final bill could easily exceed $3 billion dollars!Vinci, a scandal-ridden company from France, was awarded the bypass’s general construction contract as well as its 30-year maintenance contract. That decision has shipped off at least a billion dollars of public funds overseas.Many capable and deserving Sask-based road and bridge building companies received little or no work from this unprecedented public works fiasco. A number of those deserving and capable companies have now laid off workers, and some have even gone out of business.On the flip-side of this tarnished coin, certain government-friendly developers and land speculators have been paid up to 80 times more for their land holdings than was offered to long-time land, home and business owners in the same areas.Our 40-year-old family-owned business (Super Seamless of Canada) was bulldozed through by the Ministry of Highways’ land expropriators. Those callous actions significantly harmed our local business operations and completely destroyed our international business expansion plans.The wasteful spending on the Regina Bypass has severely depleted the monies the Ministry of Highways critically needed to maintain and repair hundreds of existing highways throughout Saskatchewan which have been designated as “roadways of concern.” The wasteful spending on the Regina Bypass has also greatly contributed to the successive slash-and-burn deficit budgets that cut public sector jobs, services and wages; that shuttered STC and sold off other Crown Corporations. Adding to the pain is the additional 6% provincial tax imposed on the construction and service industries. `PETITION CALLING FOR A JUDICIAL PUBLIC INQUIRY AND FORENSIC AUDIT INTO THE REGINA BYPASS LAND SCANDALWHEN, WHERE, AND WHY DID THEY BURY THEIR MORAL COMPASSOn Thursday, April 4th 2019, a vote was conducted within the Saskatchewan Legislature regarding whether or not a Public Inquiry would be launched into the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) venture. A venture that is to date, is more than $40 Million Dollars in debt. Predictably, all 13 members of the NDP caucus voted for a Public Inquiry; and, eventually, all 48 members of the Sask. Party caucus voted against a Public Inquiry.Initially, Sask. Party MLA Tina Beaudry-Mellor blurted out “Yes” when it was her turn to verbally register her vote. Her affirmative response instantly shocked and surprised every attending MLA. Mere seconds later, once Ms. Beaudry-Mellor stated she had meant to say “No” and had apologized for her gaff, the collective gasps of disbelief were replaced with light-hearted teasing from both sides of the aisle.Obviously, during that particular session, Ms. Beaudry-Mellor wasn’t 100% focused on her solemn responsibility to continue to keep the provincial government’s many secretive, and some might even say deceitful “special” arrangements with their close private enterprise ‘supporters’, from being unearthed and exposed to the citizens of Saskatchewan. Did a split-second pang of guilt lead to a Freudian slip of her tongue? Perhaps she experienced a flashback to her days on the campaign trail, when in an attempt to win the party’s leadership race after the unexpected resignation of Premier Brad Wall.When Mr. Wall announced he would be “retiring” early from public service, a veteran CTV News Regina reporter later reminded viewers that some of the leadership candidates -- including Ms. Beaudry-Mellor, had mentioned repeatedly that the GTH’s baffling circumstances and proceedings needed to be thoroughly investigated.Nevertheless, in early February of 2018 Scott Moe was handed the Sask. Party’s tarnished crown and dictatorial scepter as the newly anointed political ruler of our vast and diverse province. Shortly after his coronation, a few of his former leadership opponents were invited into the provincial cabinet, including Mr. Gordon Wyant and Ms. Tina Beaudry-Mellor.The fact that these two (now highly placed) individuals have refused to re-address their concerns over the GTH controversy that were once their solemn campaign promises, merely confirms the suspicions of many and the continuing need for a Public Inquiry.FINALLY OTTAWA MAY NOW BE LISTENINGEnough legitimate questions have been raised regarding the unusual processes and transactions which took place prior to and during construction of this yet to be completed project. It would appear to have gotten the attention of our Federal legislators. The House of Commons now is on record as agreeing to look into this matter further. We can only hope that this is not merely lip service, but can be taken at face value that the federal minister responsible will undertake a thorough investigation into the details surrounding this project from concept to implementation.It will be interesting to see if pressure will be applied by Ottawa as it would certainly serve to enhance their status in the west. Should they succeed in exposing corruption and collusion that many suspect is present with our provincial administrators and their private sector ‘partners’, it might open the eyes of those who continue to discount our questions. The following is a copy of the minutes of routine proceedings in the House of CommonsWHICH HAS THE HIGHEST ROAD BUILDING COSTS? BC VS SK — AN EMBARRASSING COMPARISONEVERYONE LOVES A PARADE…. ALMOSTWe waited in anticipation to participate in our second Exhibition Day Parade, well really our first. We followed the parade last year after the last car, the Regina City Police. We had a tremendous response, many thumbs up, people hollering, “Yes, you are absolutely right, it is Highway Robbery!”After our group had been banned and kicked out of various parades and festivals, we were hopeful that this event would not end in a similar fashion as the others. Unfortunately, in a repeat of events we were told minutes before the parade began that we couldn’t be in the Exhibition Parade. The Regina Exhibition Association Parade Board said we were a protest and it was a family parade. We tried to negotiate with the Parade Director as we were promoting our book. She said that from our deckled car it did not appear that we were promoting a book.We do realize that the theme of our message contrasts that of the theme of the exhibition parade which is one of celebration. Our frustration has always been our difficulty in finding a legitimate platform to communicate our message to the general public.We get it though. What we are ‘promoting’ is not a subject for celebration. It is a subject for public awareness and concern. An encouraging note however was that after we were left in an empty parking lot and being threatened that law enforcement would show up to prevent us from participating in the parade, we were gratified to received high fives, thumbs up and cheers of encouragement from others participating in the parade and many others along the parade route. It causes us to think that maybe, just maybe, whatever we have been saying in whatever venue we could find to say it, is being heard by more people as time goes on.PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTERSHIPS FACTS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOWMr. Romoff is President and CEO of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships. He has demonstrated incredible bias in favor of Public/Private partnerships while failing to address some of the real and major concerns that have emerged with the P3 model.Recent P3 projects in Saskatchewan have proven to be ineffective. The mainstream media in Saskatchewan has failed to criticize any P3 project and even appears to be supportive of these undertakings despite their being numerous problems with many of these projects.Here are some facts that contradict such endorsements.FACTS:Saskatchewan Party government has refused to disclose information on the extent of the cost and commitments of projects using the P3 model.P3 schools in Saskatchewan cost far more to maintain than other Saskatchewan schools.The Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battlefords had to replace its roof only 75 days after opening. According to Saskatchewan Party government Health Minister Jim Reiter, the entire roof was replaced because installed insulation panels had shrunk and caused leakage.Former Premier Brad Wall announced the rebuild for the Saskatchewan Hospital in 2011. At that time the cost was $100 million. Less than three years later, the price jumped to between $175 and $250 million. When the contract was signed in 2015, the cost had reached $407 million. One of the reasons for this high price tag is the $185 million set aside for maintenance over 30 years. That is $6.2 million a year on one facility. This is hard to swallow, considering the former health region spent $3.1 million a year on all of their facilities!The Regina Bypass is now the most expensive stretch of flat road in Canadian History with a price tag much higher than the cost initially pitched to Saskatchewan residents. The cost of the Regina Bypass has ballooned so quickly that the government will not disclose how much the final cost is. We do know that $700 million of this $2 Billion price tag is consumed by maintenance fees.Vinci, a company from France who is deeply rooted in scandals in Europe, including human rights issues, money laundering, and bribery was awarded the P3 contract for the Regina Bypass.The Regina Bypass has presented severe structural problems. The foreign conglomerate being paid to manage it has a record of delayed responses to urgent matters.The Regina Bypass project has many deficiencies. In an email obtained by the NDP through access to information, a Department of Highways official said there were 1,100 minor deficiencies found in phase one of the Bypass as of Oct. 2017. Parts of the Regina Bypass have been sinking, much of the paving work was subpar, and another paving contractor had to be hired to complete the shoulders of the service roads. Light poles are also failing having to be reinforced as they are falling over.SNC LAVALIN AND THE REGINA BYPASSThe SNC-Lavalin scandal has been on the minds of many Canadians since the story first broke in February 2019. People have been anxious to know more after a report by the Federal Ethics Commissioner titled, Trudeau II, found the Prime Minister guilty of violating federal ethics codes.The announcement leaves us with many questions heading into the election. We risk the possibility of re-electing a government that may be charged later with serious crimes. Unfortunately, it appears that bribery and corruption are common themes in Canadian politics. Saskatchewan has been facing its own LavScan here with the Regina Bypass, or should we say, BypassScan. There seems to be a common thread between engineering firms around the world to secure contracts unethically or illegally. It also appears that the government turns a blind eye to this activity.It is well-known that Saskatchewan’s largest infrastructure project, The Regina Bypass is a P3 Project that was tendered out to 3 contractors, SNC-Lavalin, Vinci, and AECOM. The question that everyone asks is why the Government of Saskatchewan did not use Saskatchewan road and bridge builders to engineer and build the Regina Bypass.Through the bidding process, Vinci, a company from France who is deeply embroiled in scandals in Europe, was awarded the contract over SNC-Lavalin. The cost of the Regina Bypass exploded from $400 million to now over $2 Billion Dollars, five times more than the original budget estimate! On May 3rd, 2019, MP Erin Weir stood up in parliament and said, “We have heard a lot on this House about SNC-Lavalin, but Saskatchewan people are concerned another multinational construction company accused of corruption. Vinci Construction took $2 billion to build a Bypass around Regina that was supposed to cost only $400 million. Will this government investigate to ensure that federal funds invested in this boondoggle were not misused?”A HIGH ALTITUDE VIEW OF OUR PROVINCIAL ECONOMYA few short years ago, Saskatchewan was in the midst of an economic boom. The good times we had were largely due to resource development apart from the farming and agricultural sectors. We are fortunate to have natural reserves which have contributed to crop production becoming a smaller percentage of our provincial economic output. The common denominator among all of these items is the demand in a highly competitive world marketplace. When the price of a barrel of oil drops below $60, we are effectively taken out of the running as a supplier. When political decisions are made that alienate major customer countries like China, crop commodities and beef exports are also curtailed. Along with these restrictions, any additional economic development plans with these potential partners are put on hold. The causes for our economic woes fall into two categories: categories: 1. those over which we have no control and 2. those over which we have some influence and the ability to anticipate the consequences of our decisions. When you combine these factors with local mismanagement of our finances, you get a ‘perfect storm’ of lost revenue which must be replaced.The 2017 Crash and Burn saw crown corporations being sold off, essential government services cut, the shutdown of STC, and an increase to the PST. Not only was it raised to 6%, it was also imposed on the construction and service industries. These were sectors that were already forced to adjust to new regulations imposed by Ottawa aimed at making it more difficult for first-time home buyers to qualify for a mortgage. The effect has been immediate and painful. Nearly every contractor and every supplier has been forced to lay off employees and scale back their operations. Finally, we now have a federally imposed carbon tax which has added to the cost of every household’s operation.Yet despite these observations, we are being told that the Canadian economy is in good shape and growth is consistently happening. Many business owners in Saskatchewan would be hard pressed to support such claims.Before the 2017 budget, PST had only applied to construction materials. But the budget had the effect of extending it to labor and overhead, since the tax is now imposed on the final contract or sale price. The change added about $197.6 million to provincial coffers that fiscal year, less than the anticipated $350 million.On May 1, 2018, the Bank of Canada released that for the last 30 years household debt in Canada has been on the rise not only in relative terms but also relative to the size of the economy. They stated that at the end of last year, Canadian households owed over $2 Trillion Dollars and three quarter of this debt is mortgages. Stats Canada has released that there have been declines in trade, transportation, warehousing, and business and building services in Saskatchewan.Shortly after the Sask. Party announced the 2019-2020 budget, a CBC article was released announcing that the overall debit in Saskatchewan is increasing by $1.8 Billion Dollars over the next year and will reach $21.7 Billion Dollars by the end of 2019. This represents an increase of $10 Billion Dollars since 2015. How is it possible that in just four years the Sask. Party has increased the overall debit in Saskatchewan by 50%!Another interesting fact discussed in this article is that the interest payments are $694 Million Dollars on our provincial debt. This is nearly identical to what the province spends on protection including policing and corrections. The point we want to emphasize is that some issues with regard to fiscal management can be controlled. While we cannot anticipate international political consequences or the effect of climate change, we can do a much better job of controlling and managing our own financial resources.Recently, Premier Scott Moe met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss among other things the Federal Carbon Tax. We also heard Minister of Justice Don Morgan say that the provincial government has retained MLT Aikins law firm for the Supreme Court challenge on this subject. The retention of this council will cost Saskatchewan taxpayers $500,000 in addition to the Constitutional Lawyers the government already employs.This figure also doesn’t represent the court fees and additional legal fees that will be required to sustain this action as it winds through the courts over the following months, or years if necessary. The carbon tax is a constitutional issue that will most likely be a no win battle for the Sask. Party.We contend that the recently imposed PST tax is the burden that Premier Moe should be focusing on. Saskatchewan taxpayers need to call on Premier Moe to repeal the PST tax that has impacted everyone in the province, crippled the construction industry, and sent our province spiraling into a recession.We contend that the PST tax was introduced to make up for their waste on the $2 Billion Dollar Regina Bypass. This money will never see the light of day in Saskatchewan again. We suggest the Sask Party should retain the $500,000, (which we all know with real costs will be five times this amount just like the Regina Bypass), repeal the PST increase and reduce its scope. Finally we repeat that a Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal be conducted.Unfortunately, it would appear that the Sask. Party is using the carbon tax as a smoke screen to distract people from the outstanding issues that have in part contributed to our present economic climate. We need to get our local house in order before pursuing a debate with our federal government which can only lead to more division and lack of cooperation from Ottawa.As taxpayers we deserve honest answers and transparency from our elected officials and an admission that the management of the Regina Bypass Land Scandal has been a major contributor to our economic woes. A Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit would ensure that certain rules be put in place to prevent a recurrence of this type of fiscal mismanagement.This was a fight we took on that ended up being a fight for our life, a fight for the lives of others, for government accountability and transparency, for our elected officials to step up and do the right thing.Likely, many taxpayers believe, it is far too late to ever recoup even some of their wasted dollars. Nevertheless it is absolutely critical that we band together and demand more transparency and accountability from our elected officials before they enter into transactions that affect us all especially while benefitting only a selected few with exorbitant profits drawn from the public coffer. We must ensure that this kind of secretive decision making by our elected public servants is prevented and can never reoccur. The issues of accountability and responsibility to the electorate on the part of public sector employees are critical and fundamental.
OPENING OF THE $2 BILLION DOLLAR REGINA BYPASS[Regina, Saskatchewan Oct, 2019] The biggest infrastructure project in Saskatchewan’s history will go down in history as, Highway Robbery the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. The taxpayers of Saskatchewan are calling for a Judicial Public Inquiry and Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. The taxpayers of Saskatchewan want to know the following:Why did the Government approve building an outdated, dysfunctional, unsafe, $2 Billion Dollar, developer influenced Bypass within city limits and fails to serve much of the purpose for which it was intended?Land developers purchased 640 acres of land along Tower Road and had the Regina Bypass moved to accommodate their developments.Thousands of people were impacted directly losing their land, homes, businesses, access, life’s work, health, history and future.Land developers were paid up to 80 times more for their land than long term land, home and business owners along the Bypass route. Coincidentally, many of these individuals were either former employees of related government agencies or had prior business relationships with elected officials responsible for overseeing the project.The cost of the Regina Bypass exploded from $400 Million to now over $2 Billion Dollars, five times more than the original estimate.Vinci, a French contractor that is deeply rooted in scandals in Europe was awarded the contract to build the $2 Billion Dollar Regina Bypass.Premier Brad Wall signed an order in council to pay $21.1 Million Dollars for four times more land than was needed and paid 20 times more than others in the same area were paid. The 54 acres of land that was needed next to the GTH was only worth $312,000.The 2 Billion Dollar expense + 6% PST on Construction and Service Industries has sent us spiraling into a recessionAfter a partial investigation, the RCMP abruptly closed the file on the Regina Bypass and GTH Land Scandal and did not lay criminal charges.The people of Saskatchewan deserve accountability and transparency in our government. If we turn a blind eye to wrongdoings of our government, how can we expect change? The issues of accountability and responsibility from our elected officials when handling public money are critical and fundamental. It appears from where we are that the only thing left to do now is put the safeguards in place that will prevent such abuses from reoccurring in the future.The Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road? /HighwayRobbery.org
Let's do a thought experiment; let's say you worked all of your life to get an education, get a job, build a home, raise a family, and start a business. Envision you have plans to expand your business nationally and internationally with proprietary technology, the only machine like it in North America. You bought some land outside the City off Highway No.1 South Service Road, and Tower Road, you began your expansion project and started construction. Now, let's pretend that midway through construction of your first of four buildings, you discovered at a public open forum that the Regina Bypass had a new preferred plan to move 400 meters east of Tower Road. The new preferred plan would destroy your business access, and you would lose your land. Imagine that the last 30 years that you had been in business taking risk everyday working 100+ hours a week, seven days a week, was about to be washed away.Now, snap back to reality. This has been our reality for the last six years. We have embarked on the fight of our lives, a fight for our human rights, a fight for the rights of our neighbors, the people that were impacted by the Regina Bypass, the human rights of the taxpayers and people of Saskatchewan. The unnecessary Government waste on the Regina Bypass has affected the entire province with the recession created in large part by deep-rooted corruption in our government. Would you stand up and say this is wrong, this is criminal? People need to be held accountable.The Premier of our Province needs to be held accountable as he is in charge of the public purse. We elect the government to operate democratically. The Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan website states under the Role of a Member, 'Members are elected to represent the specific interests of their constituents but are also representatives of the province of Saskatchewan and must consider the province's needs as a whole. Whatever their political outlook, and regardless of which side of the Assembly they sit on, members' duties and obligations are considerable.' We as constituents need to stand up and hold the government to account, or we can say, 'You can't fight city hall.' You can't. You can't. You can't.It was 1978 when we started our family business. We fought to get into the business, we fought to stay in business, and we fought to get the right products and services so we could build a successful business. In 2010 we began our final journey to take all of our life experience in the industry and the technologies and products we had acquired and developed over the past 30 years to build a 200,000sq. ft manufacturing plant to house this technology. We purchased a state-of-the-art insulated residential steel siding machine that is 300ft long. This product and technology is the only machine in North America. We could have made Regina the home base for exporting this technology across the continent, setting up plants across Canada and The United States.The planning for the Regina Bypass had been in the works for many years, having multiple different studies conducted. The final Stantec study in 2010 approved the east terminal for the Regina Bypass to be located at Tower Road. We ordered our first two buildings in 2010. We had the perfect plan, an ideal opportunity, the best siding product in North America, insulated steel siding. We even had an international company that wanted to purchase our technology and establish manufacturing plants across North America. This would have generated hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in sales. We could have created employment opportunities for hundreds of people locally and thousands nationally and internationally. We had the approval, technology, knowledge, and experience to put all of this together. Until, one day, in June 2013, we attended the first public open forum for the Regina Bypass midway through the construction of our manufacturing plants. Unfortunately, our dream had suddenly become a nightmare.So what did we do, you ask? We began doing research, talking to stakeholders, and writing letters to the government to try to get answers. What we soon discovered was alarming. We found out that there had been closed meetings held on May 6th – 9th, 2013, that we were not invited too. The only people invited to this meeting were the developers along Tower Road, the provincial government, the City of Regina, and the R.M. of Sherwood. We found out that two major developers purchased 640 acres of land along Tower Road in 2012. Long Lake Investments purchased 500 acres of land for $12,125/acre, a total of 6 million dollars. We also found out that the principal of Long Lake Investments, Murad Al-Katib was a director on the Regina Opportunities Commission along with Mayor Pat Fiaco in 2011. In 2012, Mr. Al-Katib was again on the board of directors of this organization, along with Mayor Michael Fougere. Al-Katib has been chairman of the board since 2013 of what has now been renamed Economic Development Regina.In 2013, the City of Regina annexed the recently purchased land along Tower Road into the City of Regina. Long Lake Investments sold some of this land back to the government for the Regina Bypass. In the process, Long Lake received seven times more for this land than they originally purchased it for, $85,000/acre for 128 acres, a total of $10.1 million. Long Lake still had 372 acres for free that they are now selling for between $350,000 and $400,000/acre, a 3300% profit.Another major developer, Forester Properties Harvard developments purchased 141 acres along Tower Road from Gulf Flying J. Flying J tried for years to get approval for a truck stop but were continually told by the government that the infrastructure was not there and the land would not be annexed into the City for at least 20 years. Using this information, Flying J sold the land in 2012 to Forester Properties Harvard Development for the Aurora Mall. Shortly after the purchase, the property was annexed into the CityCity. Mere months later, the new preferred plan for the Regina Bypass appeared on the scene.We started a lobby group, The Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road. We wrote many letters to the government asking dozens of questions and for the reason behind their decision to move the Regina Bypass 400 meters east of Tower Road. The only meaningful answer we ever received from the government was that it was the engineers who decided where the Regina Bypass should go. This motivated us to speak with Highways and Infrastructure engineers, and in recorded and documented conversations, they told us that they did not agree with the location of the Regina Bypass. They revealed that their mandate was to study only how to get from Tower Road to Pinkie Road. They also speculated that it was the developers who influenced the decision.We spoke with many people who were impacted by the Regina Bypass along Tower Road. We spoke with Brandt, and they told us they did not agree with the location of the Regina Bypass. Brandt approached the government in 2013 with an alternative plan to take the east terminal to Gravel Pit Road, just outside the CityCity. This plan would have saved taxpayers over 25% of the cost of the Regina Bypass when it was estimated to be $400 million. The interchange at Gravel Pit Road would have been able to re-route traffic north and south around Regina. This plan would have been 100% functional to re-route traffic to where it needed to go. An eastern terminal at Gravel Pit Road wouldn't have affected any land, home, or business owners, including our business. Except, this plan had one small problem, Sask Party MLA Christine Tell's family owns land along Gravel Pit Road and has plans for a commercial development.We wrote several letters to our Sask. Party MLA, Christine Tell requesting to meet with her. We wrote letters to Premier Brad Wall asking to meet with him to discuss the impact of the Regina Bypass to our business. The only response we got was that their schedule did not permit time for us to meet. Instead, we were referred to the Minister of Highways, Don McMorris. So, we wrote letters to Minister Don McMorris. In fact, we wrote letters to many different government people provincially and federally.We tried to spark the interest of the media. We started a petition calling for the government to reevaluate the location of the Regina Bypass. The NDP opposition party promised to bring up our petition on budget day 2014. We sat in the Legislature with eager anticipation. We hoped this would turn into an opportunity for the media to pick up on the story and expose the story to inform the public. We sat through question period, and nothing was mentioned. The NDP did not read our petition into Question Period. In the rotunda at the Legislature we asked the NDP why they did not mention our petition after they told us they would. The answer we received was that they ran out of time.This was when we realized that we were in a much bigger fight than we initially anticipated. We had no allies, no one on our side. The Sask. Party certainly did not want this story to come out, and the government is in control of the media, the opposition party did little or nothing to help us. We were alone taking on the world when we began our campaign and still were alone.We wrote a two-page article in the Regina Leader-Post to inform the public of what we knew about the Regina Bypass. We published a letter addressed to the Government of Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall. This letter generated a bit of attention as no one knew anything about the Regina Bypass. We would never have known had we not spent 10,000 hours researching, asking questions, and talking to people that were involved.We began advertising in the Star Newspaper in White City as paid advertisements trying to inform the public. For years the people of White City had unsafe entrances onto the Trans Canada Highway. This problem could have been alleviated with three sets of traffic lights from Balgonie to Regina. We helped to inform many people with our advertisements in the Star Newspaper and frequent letters to the editor.Suddenly, after a year of paid advertising, the Star Newspaper began refusing to print our articles. They also stopped publishing our letters to the editor. They told us that they were getting complaints from people in White City. Of course, we knew who these 'people' were, namely the mayor, Bruce Evans. We knew it was Mayor Evans as we had written him many letters only to discover that he was the poster boy for the Regina Bypass. He targeted our group, saying that we were against increased safety, and the Regina Bypass was needed.The more research we conducted, the more we discovered that the Regina Bypass was a cover-up tainted with lies and deception. The entire project has been spin doctored by the government, media, and the power players, the land developers who purchased land along the Regina Bypass route at White City, Tower Road, and at the GTH.I attended the Premier's Dinner in 2015 in hopes that I could set up a meeting with Premier Brad Wall to discuss how we could salvage our business plans. Instead of being met with helpfulness, Premier Brad Wall threatened me saying that I better watch what I am saying about his MLA's, namely, Christine Tell as what I was saying could be considered as slanderous. Two weeks later, after just completing a letter to Premier Wall, the champion of the cause, my sister Sylvia, brought it to my desk and collapsed in my arms. Sylvia fell into a two-month coma and has been living in Wascana paralyzed on half of her body for the last four years. Sylvia did not deserve this; no one does.We continued to fight without Sylvia with the help of three elderly gentlemen all over the age of 80, still trying to operate our business. We did our best to get out and talk to the people. We organized rallies at the Legislature, we wrote many letters to the editor, did T.V. and radio advertising, compiled binders of information.We hired a lawyer, Bob Hrycan, in November 2015, after the government came bulldozing through our property four days after the land was expropriated. The government land grabbers destroyed tens of thousands of dollars worth of building products. They hauled them away to the garbage dump. The government then cut off our access, cut out the driveway, and dumped dirt on it, preventing us from being able to access the property. Before they would agree to build us access at the back of the property, they wanted us to sign a Release and Settlement Agreement. We refused to sign the agreement and have been left without proper access to get into and out of our property for the last four years. We made do with rig mats that we brought in.The lawyer we hired took a $100,000 retainer. We provided him with all of the comprehensive information that we had acquired. He provided the information and handed the file to a lawyer in B.C. who had no knowledge or experience, and left on a two month holiday. When he returned, over five months after we hired him, the Regina Bypass builder was moving dirt 24/7 in front of our property. He told us there was nothing more that could be done and quit the file.We then hired a lawyer to represent us in the land expropriation action to get fair value for our property and damages that resulted from the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. The lawyer filed a statement of claim and then did little or nothing to move the case along. In fact, he eventually stepped down from the case, saying that we might get a bit more for the land we lost, but we would not get damages. We later discovered that the Law Firm he worked for, Miller Thomson had a conflict of interest as they worked for Vinci, the Bypass Builder.We even had an employee who worked with our lobby group, The Regina Committee for an Alternative Bypass Solution/ Why Tower Road, start a frivolous legal action. This legal action has worked its way through the courts as a result of lawyers conflict of interest, misrepresentation, and negligence. A lawyer that I hired from McDougall Gauley, to represent us in this frivolous action took a retainer, did not provide a retainer contract, gave the file to a junior lawyer and left on a holiday. He did not advise me of the date of the court hearing, and I was not in attendance at the hearing where the employee had a lawyer that was in conflict. The lawyer that was representing the employee had previously represented me in a similar action. After we received the discombobulated decision from the Judge, we discovered the lawyer had a conflict and brought it to the attention of our lawyer and filed a complaint with the Law Society. When he did not respond for two months, we wrote another letter. When he finally responded, saying, 'With respect to the complaint to the Law Society, it is your complaint, not ours. Further, as a matter of policy, I do not bring complaints against other lawyers. It is a small family bar in Regina, and I need to maintain a civil relationship with other counsel or my clients' interests will suffer.' Then, in the same letter, 'It is apparent that you have lost confidence in our representation of you. Accordingly, it will be necessary for you to find new counsel.' Again, we later discovered that McDougall Gauley represented Vinci, the Bypass Builder. Did they have a conflict of interest in taking on our case?We have filed complaints with the Law Society on all three of these lawyers for legal misrepresentation and negligence in failing to provide a duty of care expected from a legal professional according to the Lawyers Code of Professional Conduct. The Law Society has supported two out of the three lawyers saying that they were not in breach of the Code of Professional Conduct. We are still waiting to hear the Law Society's opinion on the one lawyer with a conflict of interest. We expect that the Law Society, a self-funded, self-governed, self-regulated organization will take the side of their members.We have hired several social media people, beginning in 2014, to develop a social media campaign and website to inform the public. The government was pushing the Regina Bypass through in a hurry, and the public was not informed of the details. We have had social media people sabotage our success in getting the story out. They took our money and ran.We continued to lobby the government and advertise before the provincial election to create public awareness. In February 2016, CBC investigative reporter Geoff Leo, broke the story on the GTH Land Scandal. The government needed 54 acres of land for the Regina Bypass at the GTH. Instead of purchasing the property from the Order of Nuns for the same amount everyone else in the area was getting (5,000-$6,000 per acre), they waited for an Alberta land baron to make an offer to purchase 204 acres of land. This land baron, Robert Tappauf, rents Kindersley-area farmland to Sask Party MLA Bill Boyd (then-Minister responsible for the GTH). Months later, Mr. Tappauf flipped the land, earning a net profit of $6 million virtually overnight without going through land titles. Another government-friendly developer, Anthony Marquart, was the purchaser of those 204 acres. In February 2014, Premier Brad Wall signed an Order in Council to pay Mr. Marquart $21.1 million for four times more land than the was needed at 20 times the rate others in the area were getting. The 54 acres of land that was needed for the Regina Bypass was only worth $315,000. Bill Boyd subsequently sued Geoff Leo and the CBC, presumably to keep the scandalous story from being published before the 2016 provincial general election. This legal matter was settled in 2018.The NPD did little or nothing with any of the information we provided them or what Geoff Leo had uncovered to expose the deep-rooted government corruption and the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. If the NDP had pressed this issue, they might have been able to form a majority government and conduct a Judicial Public Inquiry and a Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass Land Scandal.When Gordon Wyant was running for Premier, he stated multiple times that no matter the results of the RCMP investigation, he would call for a Public Inquiry into the Regina Bypass to put the scandal behind them as a party and because there were still unanswered questions for him. Once Mr. Wyant was elected Deputy Premier, he backed down from this statement and even voted against a public inquiry.We approached the RCMP and provided them with three binders of comprehensive information on some of what we had learned about the Regina Bypass Scandal. In September 2018, the RCMP reported that in consultation with Manitoba Prosecution Services, they had completed their investigation of the land dealings in and around the GTH. The investigation spanned two and a half years and dedicated 7500 hours. They disclosed that all of the information they relied on was freely provided to them, and they never met the threshold to subpoena evidence. As such, it was recommended that no criminal charges be laid. Here, we are our last line of defense, the RMCP, who are supposed to be an independent body protecting the rights of citizens in our country and uphold the laws, nothing. They closed the file and didn't even look at the Tower Road and White City land scandals.Over the last year, we have been writing weekly articles in the Compass Magazine detailing everything we know about the Regina Bypass. The people who are informed and follow these articles understand. They realize that we have a corrupt system of government, and no one is keeping them in check, not our opposition party and not the media. The principals in our business and the member of our group have been standing up for the survival of our business, the people of our province, and the taxpayers who work hard to put food on the table, to have shelter, to raise a family.Everyone in Saskatchewan has been impacted by the Regina Bypass with this 2017 provincial budget and the 6% PST tax on the construction and service industries. The construction industry has been brought to a screeching halt, and Saskatchewan is now in an economic recession. Thousands of people are out of work, businesses are shutting down, and warehouses are for lease. And yet, the government continues to spin the story.Our investigative team has been discredited by the media; threatened by former Premier Brad Wall; assaulted by the Deputy Mayor of White City; harassed and almost arrested by the police during the 2018 Cathedral Village Arts Festival; kicked out of Saskatoon's 2018 Show and Shine Car Show (an event that is sponsored by Deputy Premier Gordon Wyant's brother); ejected from Regina's 2018 Santa Claus Parade (because our vehicle's The Grinch Who Stole Christmas decorations were not 'Christmassy enough'); pushed out of the 2019 Queen City Ex Parade (because we were 'too political'); and delayed during our supporting cruise in this September's Special Olympics Saskatchewan convoy.This week was the opening of the Regina Bypass. The Saskatchewan Party and Vinci held a closed Grand Opening on Pinkie Road and had a tent and speakers set up. We discovered the details 30 minutes before the Grand Opening and quickly got our P3 Cruiser, the crime finding cruiser, and made our way there to be part of the festivities. We got there after all of the speeches had been completed, and everyone had begun mingling. We took some pictures at the event and mingled with the crowd. By chance, we happened to speak with a gentleman from France who turned out to be Xavier Hulliard. Xavier introduced himself to us as the President and CEO of Vinci. Just as I was about to engage him in conversation, we were approached by a man who introduced himself as Tony Plaxton. He told us that this was a closed event, and he wanted us to leave as it was only for the Vinci people. I was confused as I thought it was a public opening of the Regina Bypass and that there were others there who were not Vinci people. He told us that they would be asked to leave as well. We decided not to create a scene and left voluntarily.We sent out a press release to the media. Not long after, we were contacted by one media station for an interview, CTV Wayne Mantyka. Mr. Mantyka has been following our story and has given us several interviews and a little bit of media attention.We can't help but wonder why we weren't invited to speak at the Grand Opening? Is the government trying to bury this story? During the Grand Opening, we heard the government say that they saved $300 million using the P3 model. This is part of their lies and deception. If we compare the Coquihalla Highway in B.C. to the Regina Bypass, we can see that the Regina Bypass is 40km of new four-lane highway, 12 overpasses, 55km of service roads, 5km of highway twinning, and 20km of resurfacing. Compared to the Coquihalla's 320km of four-lane highway, 18 interchanges, 38 bridges/ overpasses, 319 underpasses, 8 avalanche dams, 19 containment basins, 3 diversion trenches, 73 sets of avalanche benches, and 1 massive snow shed. The total cost of the Coquihalla highway adjusted for inflation was $1.63 Billion Contrast this number with the $1.88 Billion Regina Bypass, and this price doesn't include land purchases from the over 100 landowners along the Regina Bypass route. How is it possible that the Coquihalla highway through the mountains cost less to build than to 40km Regina Bypass on flat prairie land?The Fire Chief from White City made a speech at the opening stating that we can already see the improvement in safety as they have not had to use their jaws of life since the opening of the Bypass. Why didn't the Fire Chief talk about the accident that occurred when a confused driver on the diverging diamond got off the ramp on the wrong side into oncoming traffic and was confused, causing a head-on collision? Another speaker at the Regina Bypass opening was a woman named Wanda Campbell. Wanda lost her son in a fatal collision on Highway No.1. We want to send our sympathies to Wanda and her family for their tragic loss.The government has been trying to spin this story and go back on their word that the main reason for the Regina Bypass was increased safety. However, in 2008 the Minister of Highways is quoted in the Legislature saying, 'I wanted to come up with a fairly clear set of criteria on which we evaluate each and every project, so that the projects would be driven by economics first off, and then secondly safety, and thirdly socio-economic criteria.' And then again on June 20, 2016 the deputy minister of Highways said in the Legislature, 'And so when we look at highway development projects, we do take a look at the whole area as a whole and determine, based on the condition of the road, the economic importance of the road, as well as the type of economic activity that is generated in that area. We proceed to prioritize these roads.' It is clear the government spent $2 billion on the Regina Bypass for purely economic reasons and not safety. Although safety is of great importance to us and others, the government was not driven to build the Regina Bypass to improve safety for taxpayers.As the government continues to spin the story, we will continue our efforts to expose what we know about the Regina Bypass, the biggest infrastructure project in Saskatchewan's history will go down in history as Highway Robbery the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. We keep finding ourselves asking, how can something so wrong happen in the 21st century? This is like 19th century Highway Robbery in the 21st century. We have tried many things to create public awareness of the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. We have found that 99% of the informed public agrees that the Regina Bypass, the biggest infrastructure project in Saskatchewan's history, will go down in history as Highway Robbery the Regina Bypass Land Scandal. Everyone we talk to agrees that the Regina Bypass is wrong for Saskatchewan and sign our petition for a Judicial Public Inquiry and a Forensic Audit into the Regina Bypass.
Volumes of information were provided to the RCMP, and an investigation was conducted on the land transactions at the GTH. In 2018, the RCMP closed the file on the Regina Bypass Scandal stating they conducted an extensive and wide-ranging investigation that lasted two years. They spent 7500 hours investigating documents that were freely provided to them and never met the threshold to subpoena evidence.During the same time, Premier Brad Wall resigned as well as MLA Bill Boyd and Finance Minister Kevin Doherty. Gordon Wyant, now Deputy Premier said while he was campaigning for Premier that he would call for a Public Inquiry into the Regina Bypass to clear the air even if the RCMP found nothing wrong. This was soon swept under the carpet, and a statement was issued that the RCMP did their job and no Public Inquiry was necessary. It is very obvious that there is a lot more going on here than the government and the RCMP want us to believe. Through all of this, we can see a tangled web of corruption and collusion that is being covered up by the government much the same as the SNC-Lavalin scandal.As the completion of the Regina Bypass approaches, we have been able to see the flaws in the design and implementation of the engineering by Vinci. It is clear that this project is not up to standards with round-about issues, a confusing diverging diamond, the Bypass is sinking off Tower Road, and light poles are falling over and have to be redone. Saskatchewan engineers and contractors have engineered and constructed overpasses and highway successfully in our province for over a century. Which begs the questions, why was a French company given the lead on this project when they are unaware of our standards and conditions?If we turn a blind eye to wrongdoings of our government, how can we expect change? The issues of accountability and responsibility from our elected officials when handling public money are critical and fundamental. Whether they are elected or appointed, we should expect a high ethical standard of practice and conduct from them. In light of the current scandal involving our PM, a call for greater accountability and reforms to ethical standards are necessary both on the federal and provincial levels. Georges Santayana, the Spanish born aphorist from the last century, said it well when he wrote:“…Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”It’s time to demand accountability, transparency, and real advocacy from our elected officials. We are the people who must bear the cost of these mistakes. If we fail to engage in the process, we will continue to be victims.John F. Kennedy said, “Our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities.”
A few weeks ago one of our Highwayrobbery.org contributors forwarded this article to us; and we decided to have it printed in order to remind readers of the Sask. Party’s desperate and deliberate efforts to stifle the freedom of speech rights of their toe-the-line elected members:On Thursday, April 4th, a vote was conducted within the Saskatchewan Legislature regarding whether or not a Public Inquiry would be launched into the epically mismanaged Global Transportation Hub (GTH) venture. A venture that is to date, more than $40 million dollars in debt. Predictably, all 13 members of the NDP caucus voted for a Public Inquiry; and, eventually, all 48 members of the Sask. Party caucus voted against a Public Inquiry.Initially, Sask. Party MLA Tina Beaudry-Mellor blurted out “Yes” when it was her turn to verbally register her vote. Her affirmative response instantly shocked and surprised every attending MLA. Mere seconds later, once Ms. Beaudry-Mellor stated she had meant to say “No” and had apologized for her gaff, the collective gasps of disbelief were replaced with light-hearted teasing from both sides of the aisle. (side not: perhaps our elected legislators should limit their Question Period levity whenever serious matters, which have contributed to recessionary hardships, are being addressed.)Obviously, during that particular session, Ms. Beaudry-Mellor wasn’t 100% focused on her solemn responsibility to continue to keep the provincial government’s many secretive, and some might even say deceitful “special” arrangements with their close private enterprise ‘supporters’, from being unearthed and exposed to the citizens of Saskatchewan. Did a split-second pang of guilt lead to a Freudian slip of her tongue? Perhaps she experienced a flashback to her days on the campaign trail, when in an attempt to win the party’s leadership race after the unexpected resignation of Premier Brad Wall.When Mr. Wall announced he would be ‘retiring’ early from public service, a veteran CTV News Regina reporter later reminded viewers that some of the leadership candidates– including Ms. Beaudry-Mellor, had mentioned repeatedly that the GTH’s baffling circumstances and proceedings needed to be thoroughly investigated. The Honorable Gordon Wyant was also one of those leadership hopefuls who routinely declared that the GTH land buying and selling transactions should be more deeply investigated due to the ‘cloud of suspicion over the government and the party.”Nevertheless, in early February of 2018 Scott Moe was handed the Sask. Party’s tarnished crown and dictatorial scepter as the newly anointed political ruler of our vast and diverse province. Shortly after his coronation, a few of his former leadership opponents were invited into the provincial cabinet, including Mr. Gordon Wyant (currently our Deputy Premier and Minister of Education) and Ms. Tina Beaudry-Mellor (currently our Minister of Advanced Education).The fact that these two (now highly placed) individuals have refused to re-address their concern over the GTH controversy that were once their solemn campaign promises, merely confirms the suspicion of many and the continuing need for a Public Inquiry.It would appear that if one wishes to remain a member of our present government’s closed-door inner circle, they must first lose their public service morals and ethics. It seems they have all pledged to fiercely defend the party’s position to erect a ‘wall of silence’ surrounding this issue. One is left no choice but to speculate as to what exactly are they so committed to keeping the public from learning? Is it possible that many of the activities surrounding this project might even have criminal implications? The present position of these elected officials precludes any such dialogue. The optics are very bad.Mr. Wyant occasionally reappears on the public stage to recite what appear to be well-rehearsed lines into media microphones. Whenever his party’s ill-advised policies and decisions incite angry backlashes from some of Saskatchewan’s marginalized citizens he seems to get tasked with the unenviable duty of attempting to cool the heat.A recent example of the Sask. Party’s brush fired that were ignited by their 2019-20 budget announcements, was that the funding for Regina’s Cornwall Alternative School would be terminated. The heat of that fire was then intensified and spread by the concerted efforts of many stakeholders to salvage this much-needed institution. opposition MLA’s, school board members, current and former students, teachers, and administrators all voiced their grave concerns over the impending closure of this critically needed school. As a result, the provincial government ultimately reversed their planned funding cut.Wearing his Minister of Education hat, Mr. Wyant admitted that he “needs to ask more questions and have more conversations with both public and Catholic school divisions.” Mr. Wyant also stated; “I make decisions based on the information that comes to me, and I think that’s a bit of a failing on my part,- that I didn’t reach out, -that I didn’t ask enough questions when it came to the decision that we made in the budget.”We want our readers to note that on the evening of Nov.17, 2017 during Mr. Wyant’s Sask. Party leadership run, our colleagues reached out to him after his stump speech inside Regina’s Ramada Plaza hotel. They were most willing to have him ask them questions, to provide him with extensive information and to engage with him in conversation regarding his government’s $2 billion dollar-plus Regina Trans-Canada Highway No.1 Bypass. After these encounters, Mr. Wyant is on record as taking a position of concern and promising to shine a very bright light on the activities surrounding this project. Obviously, something has changed. He seems to have developed a very selective memory which does not include his former promises.Judging by his prompt response to the Cornwall Alternative School dust-up, it seems the optimal way to remind Mr. Wyant of his forgotten promise to launch a Public Inquiry into the confounding aspects of the GTH and to ‘put his feeet to the fire’ so to speak.We contend that this 500% over-budget infrastructure project has directly or indirectly impacted many tax-paying citizens. It continues to be a major factor contributing to fiscal pressure on our provinces’ operational budgets. We see continual cuts to many essential services and programs as a result.Over the last few years, a number of billboards have appeared throughout Regina that has emphatically asked all Sask. Party MLA’s: “WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?”Isn’t it about time Public Inquiry and forensic Audit, investigators formally ask all Sask. Party MLAs, along with their administrative staff and ministerial assistants, this very same question?A cynical position emerges with many who have suffered as a result. They see the new Regina Bypass as an incredibly dysfunctional, confusing, unsafe, built in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons, recession-causing, developer-influenced boondoggle which has tremendously benefited only a handful of the government’s private-sector supporters at the expense of the rest of us. In our view, that is anyting but democratic. We demand explanations. After all, we’re the ones on the hook for the costs!