Reluctance to disclose bypass, GTH costs cause for suspicion

The question asked by NDP MLA Cathy Sproule in Monday’s question period couldn’t have been much more simple or straightforward:

How much, in total, have taxpayers shelled out in either lawsuit settlements or in confidential agreements for land purchased for the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) and Regina bypass?

A fair question, given it’s taxpayers’ money footing the bill and given that it’s the might of government expropriation requiring such settlement.

And what made it that much easier for Justice Minister Don Morgan and his Saskatchewan Party government to answer Monday is that it had already provided at least a partial answer.

During a Sept. 12 meeting of the legislature’s economy committee, GTH CEO Bryan Richards told Sproule the cost of land purchases paid by the Ministry of Highways had vaulted to $24.6 million from $13.1 million because “there has been confidential agreements reached in a number of settlements on that particular land.”

“So basically, you’re saying that there’s been $11 million paid out in confidential settlements or lawsuits on the original footprint of the GTH since 2013,” Sproule said.

The grudging September disclosure directly speaks to the consequences of the rampant land speculation perhaps caused by the flipping of 204 acres by businessmen who happened to have connections to either former GTH/economy minister Bill Boyd or the Sask. Party. But how it may also have affected other specific land purchases and settlements for the Regina bypass remains anyone’s guess.

This gets to the nub of why Premier Brad Wall, Morgan et al. are doing so much tap dancing over a pretty straightforward question. Why we are paying so much for these two albatrosses now jointly hanging from the Sask. Party government’s neck has become the most burning, legitimate question in Saskatchewan politics today.

After his recitation in Monday’s question period of how expropriation has worked for present and past governments and how all have used confidentiality agreements, Morgan later told reporters that, as justice minister, he didn’t have at his fingertips an updated figure on land settlement costs.

It was a little strange, given Highways Minister David Marit and GTH Minister Dustin Duncan were both sitting in the chamber with their massive briefing books before them. Let’s accept the justice minister (notwithstanding that it was a tad unusual for him to be answering the question anyway) didn’t have the information, and let’s accept that executive council was sincere in its commitment to get the answer from Highways later that day.

The problem was, it didn’t. And without the critical information on costs, the story gets spiked for another day.

That said, Wall’s office was even kind enough to send reporters a note Monday afternoon saying “we accept the provincial auditor’s report” and its “eight recommendations where we can improve our processes” and that “The Auditor found that the Ministry of Highways generally acquires land in a fair way that provides fair market value.”

As of the writing of this, still no total figure on what the government paid for land. With enough haranguing, one suspects the government will eventually get around to providing that number.

But we still won’t know about specific, individual land transactions, leaving one to only wonder if there is another GTH fiasco out there.

Such questions on specifics have met with a combination of a government hiding behind the disclosure agreements themselves, and derision — including Morgan mocking the Opposition on Monday for being unwilling to pony up $2,000 for the $10 title searches of 199 bypass properties.

The actual costs would be far greater, because each land title search would have to be crosssectioned with past transactions. More critical would be the time involved, further suggesting the government’s only interest is in withholding as much information as possible in the hopes the public will quit asking.

What does this really accomplish? Instead of quelling GTH or Regina bypass cost suspicions, the Sask. Party government’s reluctance to provide true disclosure is only adding to them.