WHY OUR CAMPAIGN CONTINUES ON

As a principals 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 Bypass this is currently being constructed around the fringes of the city. 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.

A BRIEF COMPANY HISTORY
Our family has strived for 10 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 superiors 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.

As is true with virtually every family owned and operated company, the time, effort and sacrifices that need to be invested in every aspect of the business can be intimidated and even exhaustive. The awards and distinctions that we’ve received from our industry peers and associates have been gratifying, but we are especially energized by expressions of appreciation from satisfied customers.

SUPER SEAMLESS UPGRADES AND EXPANSIONS
We have taken on tremendous levels of risk over our 40-year run, as evidence 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 building markets in Saskatchewan and Western Canada.

Ten years ago we had 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 Highway No.1 South Service Road (just a short distance east of Tower Road) in 2005 and began our expansion in 2010. We were all aware that someday the Regina Bypass would be built on Tower Road. The plans for the 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. That acreage was a prime location for the establishment of our new manufacturing facility that would accommodate our manufacturing, processing, and distribution facilities.

However, shortly after our expansion efforts has 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 or 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.

We quickly learned that we had been blindsided by a suspicious shift of the Regina Bypass’s east terminal that ultimately resulted in its relocation 400 meters east of Tower Road. That devious shift seemed to be formulated during closed-door meetings held from May 6th-9th, 2013. These abruptly revised plans were just as abruptly introduced at a few public forums over the summer of 2013. We never were informed of the May 6th-9th meetings, which were attended by specially invited Tower Road-area developers, provincial and municipal government officials and a few R.M. of Sherwood administrators. The R.M. of Sherwood strongly opposed the altered Regina Bypass routing, and they attempted to help us enter into consultation process. However, this effort failed when the Reeve of the R.M. of Sherwood was suddenly fired for being in a conflict of interest; and his dismissal was immediately followed by an inquiry. An interim Reeve, a lawyer for the City, was assigned to shepherd the Regina Bypass through the R.M. of Sherwood without any consultation.

We continued investigating and writing letters to the government asking for details regarding the science behind their decision. The hundreds of questions that we asked in out numerous letters to the government were ignored. The only meaningful answer we received was that it was the project engineers who decided where the Regina Bypass would be routed. They incredulous response motivated us to interview some of the Department of Highways and Infrastructure’s senior engineers. They told us they didn’t agree with the present routing of the Regina Bypass. They stated that their primary responsibility was only to study and determine how the bypass should be laid out from Tower Road to Pinky Road. Most suspiciously, a couple of those project engineers mentioned that it was certain developers who influenced some of the most critical routing and rerouting decisions.

IMPACTS OF THE REVISED BYPASS
When the 400-meter-east-of-Tower-Road scheme was implemented in late 2013 our business expansion plans were decimated. We were forced to suspend the construction of the manufacturing plant that would have housed the specialized equipment we had purchased to output custom designed insulated steel siding and roofing products. Without a facility to host our 300 foot long Insulated Steel Siding Manufacturing Line, our entire capital machinery investment was lost. Our 40-year-old business was in jeopardy. Our financial resources had been strained to the limit. The possibility of relocation was impeded by the negative effect the Regina Bypass rerouting plans had on our land values. We would not be able to acquire an alternate site without major refinancing. Furthermore, the Regina Bypass’s controversial shift 400 meters east of Tower Road had placed our industrial land holdings directly in the cross-hairs of the governmental land grabbers. When the dust stirred up by the backhoes and bulldozers of the ruthless expropriators had settled, we saw just how much destruction was done to our road accesses, driveway, storage buildings, and building products. And we knew immediately that our Business Operations, and our life’s work had been irreparably damaged.