REGINA — Opposition New Democrats are demanding Premier Scott Moe and the Sask Party government pay back the City of Regina $6.8 million after triggering a bidding war for the new Costco location in Regina.
NDP MLAs Trent Wotherspoon and Hugh Gordon blamed the government for what ensued this year when a proposed second Costco store originally was set to develop in Regina’s Westerra neighbourhood, only for the proponents to back out of that deal to potentially locate in the Global Transportation Hub.
Regina city council stepped in soon after and offered $6.8 million in tax breaks to the developer to keep the new Costco in Westerra. The bidding war that followed alarmed Wotherspoon.
“We need to call this what it is,” Wotherspoon told reporters. “This is one level of government, the provincial government, competing against another level of government, the City of Regina. It's completely wrong and inappropriate. This is a ripoff of the property taxpayers of Regina, plain and simple.”
Wotherspoon said the NDP have launched a website called GTHOwesUs.ca along with a public petition demanding the Sask Party pay back the City of Regina.
“Our team has been going door-to-door to collect physical signatures on a similar petition,” Wotherspoon said. “So many folks in Regina are struggling just to get by, to organize and put something nice under the tree for Christmas or have food on the table. The last thing they can afford is another property tax hike or another tax hike due to this Sask Party government.”
Gordon, NDP critic responsible for the GTH, said the GTH has “long been associated with scandal and mismanagement.”
“This is just the latest expensive chapter for the Sask Party's failed pet project. This is money that would have helped limit property tax hikes in Regina, but sadly city rate taxpayers are now staring down a double-digit rate hike, an estimated 15.69 percent, to maintain current services. This is no way to ring in the Christmas season, and it's definitely no way to run a provincial government.”
Latest calls follow auditor’s findings on GTH
The NDP news conference came a week before Regina budget deliberations on the proposed 15.69 per cent mill rate increase. It also comes one day after Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett released her report on the GTH.
Her report found the Global Transportation Hub Authority “did not have well-defined collaboration procedures for major developments at the Hub,” said Clemett.
“Having such procedures would reduce the likelihood of the authority competing with developers in nearby municipalities, like the City of Regina, for future major land developments. It would also provide a rigorous consultation process to promote transparency.”
When asked what specific processes she wanted to see implemented, Clemett said at this point in time “the GTH doesn't have any sort of formal procedures that outline what that consultation process looks like.”
She said they should “formalize expectations that convey who are the various parties that they should be collaborating with when they're making decisions” on potential land and development at the GTH.
“So it's really just sort of who, where, when and how needs to be more clearly conveyed and so that going forward in the event that you know there is these surrounding municipalities that may be impacted by developments at the Hub that they have a very outlined rigorous transparent process and they'll use the same process consistently time after time.”
Asked if the emails the GTH authority sent to the city regarding Costco were adequate for the kind of collaboration she was referring to, Clemett said “without having that sort of defined process, I can't ascertain whether or not that aligned with the good practice that hopefully they will now convey. So it's important and that's why we're recommending that they do formalize what those procedures look like, because otherwise there is the potential that additional costs may have been avoided if some of this collaboration and those procedures had been better defined.”
Wotherspoon says provincial auditor was “bang on”
When asked if the GTH authority had played a role in creating the situation, Wotherspoon said “without a doubt the auditor was bang on, and this provincial government should have never competed against the City of Regina on this front in causing the city and its taxpayers to be on the hook for these costs.”
“So without a doubt this Sask Party government responsible for the GTH should have never competed against the city. When they became aware that they were — if at some point the minister wasn't aware, which seems indefensible — they should have stood down that competition. They should have stood down the GTH. This never should have cost the taxpayers of Regina.”
As for where the $6.8 million to the city is going to come from, given the financial pressures the government is currently facing, Wotherspoon responded that “this is a government that wastes money hand over fist day after day.”
“Whether you look at their IT project that's gone sideways or spending money to send women to Calgary at 10 times the cost for mammograms that should be available here, or whether it's way more expensive contract nurses or the alleged blowing of over $100 million unnecessarily on the acquisition of water bombers.
“This is a government that wastes dollars hand over fist, and now they've done so with their very inappropriate competition with the city with respect to the Costco that's now cost the city taxpayers $7 million.”
Province responds
In a statement the provincial government had this response:
"The Government of Saskatchewan acknowledges and accepts the Auditor’s review of the Global Transportation Hub Authority’s (GTHA) role in the Costco negotiations and will implement the recommendation to formalize collaboration methods. The audit confirmed that the Authority acted within its legislative mandate and complied with all applicable laws."
"The Auditor’s report also recognized that the GTHA made multiple attempts to collaborate with the City of Regina during these discussions. To further strengthen governance and stakeholder engagement, the Authority will implement a Stakeholder Collaboration Policy. This policy will formalize processes for engagement on major developments, aligning with the GTH Development Plan Bylaw and provincial planning standards to enhance transparency, consistency, and stakeholder expectations."
The government also stated that they and the GTH will continue to work with all partners including the City of Regina to ensure that all of us continue to bring economic growth to our region and to the province.
