A lawsuit over a business failure in Saskatchewan’s high-tech agriculture sector almost a decade ago has begun in a Saskatoon courtroom.
Ceapro Inc., an Edmonton-based life sciences company, is seeking more than $60 million in damages over the 1998 failure of Canamino, an oat processing company in Saskatoon.
The defendants in the case include:
- The Saskatchewan Government Growth Fund, its former management company and its former head, Gary Benson.
- The government of Saskatchewan and former cabinet minister Janice MacKinnon, who was responsible for the province’s economic development fund at the time.
- Can-Oat Milling, at the time a subsidiary of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
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The trial, with nine lawyers arguing their cases before Court of Queen’s Bench judge Martel Popescul, began last week and is expected to last several months.
Canamino began life in 1995 as a private company fractionating oats into constituent parts used in the production of cosmetics and other products.
Ceapro was originally a customer of Canamino, but eventually bought the plant. Canamino ran into financial difficulties and eventually went into receivership in 1998.
The government of Saskatchewan, one of the creditors, bought the plant in 1999 for $1.23 million and ran processing operations for clients on a fee-for-service basis. It remains in business today as the Innovation Place Bioprocessing Centre in Saskatoon.
Ceapro also remains in business developing and producing organic health products and cosmetics. It recently reported a third-quarter loss of $602,000, or one cent per share, with revenue declining 22 percent to $519,000.
The company reported record revenue of $3.3 million in 2006.
