Brightenview could raise more GTH questions

The sad reality is that the bad ol’ days of the Grant Devine Progressive Conservatives were supposed to teach us a lesson once and for all.

The billion-dollars-of-debt-per-year Saskatchewan government was supposed to teach us the value of a hard-earned tax dollar. Money was no longer to be doled out to anyone with a hare-brained idea for an English-French translation service or anyone with an idea to make plastic shopping carts that actually didn’t fit in a standard grocery aisle.

Alas, we naively thought this would be the end of Saskatchewan governments setting aside caution and due diligence of potential taxpayer investments at the first sight of entrepreneurs with big dreams and big schemes.

Yes, even those penny-pinching governing New Democrats developed a love for big-money investors, pursuing Piper Aircraft building airplanes and Broe Industries pumping out fertilizers and, of course, Spudco, which cost taxpayers $36 million.

So ludicrous was the latter that a young Opposition leader named Brad Wall simply vowed his Saskatchewan Party government would never pick winners and losers.

Of course, that was long before his deputy minister of the economy Laurie Pushor — most famous for guiding the negotiations that sold 204 acres of land to the Global Transportation Hub for $103,000 per acre, allowing Sask. Party donors to pocket $6 million and $5 million, respectively — deemed taxpayer money to SkipTheDishes was the smartest way to add to our then-growing deficit.

But even by Saskatchewan’s lax standards of welcoming any and all investments, the welcoming of Brightenview Development International Inc. to the GTH is disconcerting.

Brightenview is a land development corporation highly successful at attracting foreign, mostly Chinese, investors and best known for its 2013 promise to construct a megamall in Dundurn. The mall was supposed to be opened by 2015. So far, no megamall.

In the meantime, it also promised in 2014 a similar venture for Chatham, Ont., to open in 2016. That mall hasn’t opened, either.

This month, Sask. Party government officials donned their hard hats to welcome to the GTH Brightenview’s $45-million wholesale mall aimed at Chinese investors.

In fairness, the government insists Brightenview is in good standing as a Saskatchewan company. Brightenview has put down its required investors’ cash to at least get the GTH project going. And the Brightenview GTH project has been in the works for a while — at least since early 2016.

In fact, during his trip to China last fall, Wall told a room of Chinese investors in Beijing that they should “explore one of our most significant investment opportunities: the Global Transportation Hub.”

Wall was promoting Saskatchewan opportunities, but he and his officials were also promoting to these Chinese investors the opportunities presented by a private business. The words of a foreign leader carry great weight in China.

However, there may be a problem with Wall promoting Brightenview ... especially in China.

This week, CBC investigative reporter Geoff Leo revealed Interpol documents showing founders of Brightenview and another Torontobased company called Canmax that partners with Brightenview are wanted by the Chinese government for alleged loan fraud. Arrest notices have been issued as part of a Chinese government anti-corruption campaign.

Admittedly, these are nothing more than allegations ... and from the Chinese government, no less. Brightenview’s Saskatchewan vice-president Lorne Nystrom — the former NDP MP and leadership hopeful — told Leo those individuals in question are not involved with Brightenview and its GTH project is going ahead.

However, according to other documents obtained by Leo and also posted on the CBC website, there are also a series of 20 lawsuits filed by people who now claim Canmax owes them money over investments.

The problem for the Saskatchewan government is that it is now very much tied to all that is Brightenview — even promoting it during the spring session as another GTH success story.

Sound familiar? It should in a province that’s sometimes been short on due diligence but big on entrepreneurial dreams.