New Sask. Party leader will have to deal with GTH questions

For the second time in a year, Premier Brad Wall was lauding Bill Boyd when the Saskatchewan Party leader should have instead been asking some serious questions.

Upon the news that Boyd would be retiring as Kindersley MLA, Wall gushed: “It’s no exaggeration to say if it wasn’t for Bill Boyd, there wouldn’t be a Saskatchewan Party.”

It was all too reminiscent of the glowing comments Wall offered Boyd a year earlier when he resigned from cabinet — a resignation Wall should have demanded six weeks earlier after provincial auditor Judy Ferguson, in her report on the Global Transportation Hub (GTH), stated the “unique board governance and active involvement of the GTH chair/minister (Boyd) resulted in “buying land at significantly higher price and not in financially responsible manner.”

It wasn’t all that surprising. Boyd has enjoyed from the Wall government deference no other MLA would have received ... although, one wonders what Saskatchewan conflict of interest commissioner Ron Barclay may now have to say about Boyd’s most recent alleged conflict.

Barclay will rule whether Boyd breached conflict of interest rules in a March 18 business seminar (four days before the budget release) in Beijing, in which Boyd courted Chinese investment in a private company he has interests in, in exchange for potential immigration status.

Let us be clear that it is now Boyd who has requested Barclay review the way he handled and promoted his bid to attract potential investors in his Leaderarea irrigation company, called Modern Hi-Efficiency Agriculture Corporation.

The former minister did say this week he “made it clear that I was presenting as a farmer and private businessman, not the current economy minister” and that “any reference to myself as the minister of the economy is custom in that country.” He has also vowed to now contact those who attended his Beijing seminar and clarify that he is not a minister and that this investment is not in a government-backed project.

But let us be equally clear that neither the public nor the conflict of interest commissioner nor even the Sask. Party government had any knowledge that its government logo and Boyd’s former title were being used in promotional material for Boyd’s seminar until contacted by the CBC in preparation for its story. Let us also be very clear that once Boyd resigns Sept. 1 (he announced his resignation as MLA the day before the CBC story ran), any MLA conflict-ofinterest rules become moot.

“Inaccurate representations may have appeared on some websites promoting your presentations in China,” Wall wrote to Boyd after his office was told by the CBC of Boyd’s seminar. “Please ensure that any future representations made by you or on your behalf do not inaccurately represent the Government of Saskatchewan in any matter.”

Absolutely tepid, but one wonders if Wall’s successor will have such a luxury.

We have already seen one potential Sask. Party leadership candidate, Justice Minister Gord Wyant, have to break cabinet confidentiality to explain the first attempt to buy GTH land from an anonymous seller whose bid Boyd had brought to cabinet.

We have seen Sask. Party government backbenchers, at the behest of current executive council, block key public servants from testifying before legislative committees on the GTH handling.

We have seen Wall quash the notion of forensic audits or internal investigations.

We have seen the Highways Ministry repeatedly defy Freedom of Information law (much to the frustration of the commissioner) to avoid revealing vital information on the case.

Is this the ongoing position of Sask. Party leadership candidate Tina Beaudry-Mellor or Wyant, who is expected to get into the race next week? Where do Jim Reiter, Ken Cheveldayoff, Alanna Koch, Kevin Doherty and especially Economy Minister Jeremy Harrison stand on our weak conflict of interest rules that may permit this?

Are we to the point where the Sask. Party actually needs an outsider like Brad Trost in the race to address this issue?

The new Sask. Party leadership must address this.