An Idaho grower says he only agreed to buy seed potatoes from
Saskatchewan because a government employee said it would make the
province’s now-defunct potato company look like it was doing well.
Chad Neibaur of Bancroft, Idaho, said in an affidavit filed in Regina
earlier this year that Spudco officials contacted him several times
about buying Saskatchewan potatoes.
He said they told him and another grower that the province was anxious
to use its potato storage facilities because they were “full of hay and
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not being used efficiently”.
In March 2000, he added, Dale Sigurdson asked him to sign a document
agreeing to buy nearly 1,600 tonnes of certified seed potatoes.
Sigurdson was chief executive officer of the government-owned
Saskatchewan Valley Potato Corp., which was formed after Spudco was
dissolved.
The deal was worth about $560,000.
Neibaur was supposed to pay a 10 percent deposit by Jan. 1, 2001, and
the remainder within 30 days of picking up the potatoes.
Last fall the government sued Neibaur for refusing to take delivery of
the potatoes and pay any of the money.
Neibaur claimed he was never supposed to take delivery.
“Mr. Sigurdson assured me that Spudco wanted this document only so
Spudco could show on its books that it was enjoying success in
marketing seed potatoes it was proposing to grow in Saskatchewan,” the
affidavit said.
In the legislature last week, opposition MLA Dan D’Autremont questioned
the deal.
“Mr. Speaker, why did Spudco officials try to use American potato
grower Chad Neibaur to fake a sale of potatoes for the NDP government?”
D’Autremont asked.
Crown Investments Corp. minister Maynard Sonntag declined to comment,
saying the matter is before the courts.
On June 11, the Court of Appeal was to hear Neibaur’s claim that the
case should be heard in Idaho, not Saskatchewan.
Last fall, Sonntag announced the government was getting out of the
potato business after losing about $28 million through Spudco and
Saskatchewan Valley Potato Corp.
