GTH bus subsidy ‘not appropriate,’ minister says

Province plans to get out of deal that has cost taxpayers $500,000

REGINA The first day of the current legislative session’s question period saw the provincial government back away from continuing to subsidize private bus service to the Global Transportation Hub (GTH), and reaffirm its decision to sell the beleaguered inland port.

First Canada has been paid $1.43 million in the past four years to carry workers to and from the facility, located west of Regina. Taxpayers have paid $500,000 for that service over that time, with the remaining cost being picked up by businesses located there.

But Don Morgan, attorney general and minister responsible for the GTH, said Thursday it is “not appropriate” for taxpayers to be subsidizing a private bus company.

“It’s not something the public purse should be paying for,” Morgan said, noting the GTH felt the service was important to people needing access to it, but the reality is, “We’re using taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize a private enterprise, and we have to find a way to extricate ourselves from that.”

Taxpayers may be on the hook for continuing to pay for some of the bus service, however, because the contract with First Canada does not expire until May of next year.

NDP opposition members criticized the province for subsidizing the service, most notably because the Saskatchewan Party government chose to shut down the public provincial bus company, STC.

MLA Cathy Sproule described the province’s actions as “appalling ” and “disgusting.”

Morgan said the decisions to shut down STC and now stop the subsidy at the GTH are examples of the province now applying a “consistent policy.”

With only 12 clients, the halfempty GTH has not made a land

sale in two years and has $40 million in debt. As well, it is serviced by yearly interest costs of $845,000.

That dismal financial situation has contributed, in part, to the province’s decision to divest itself of the GTH — a move Morgan reaffirmed on Thursday.

But there is no timeline as to when that will happen, with Morgan only saying it won’t happen this year.

“It’s a challenge to go through the process, because you want to make sure that nothing that you do as part of that damages or impairs the clients that are already there,” he said.

“You’ve made commitments to

those clients; they have to have lights, snow removal and everything else,” he added.

“It’s actually a small municipality that is there, so you have to make sure that continues on ... there’s raw land there you’d like to sell; I don’t want to sell the land or have the land sold at a ridiculously low price.

“We’d like to have an orderly resolution.”

Complicating the matter is the fact that none of the likely buyers of the facility seem interested, and that any provincial divestment would require a change of legislation.

Regina Mayor Michael Fougere has previously said “no consideration” is being given to the city entering into a potential partnership or purchase of the GTH.

“The public information available about the GTH and the debt load and those kinds of issues, and the political surroundings of this and the legal issues, looking at that as a package I’m not sure what the proposal would look like if there was one,” he said during the summer.

The RM of Sherwood seems slightly more interested, but still uncommitted, about becoming involved.