The opposition Saskatchewan Party last week renewed its call for an independent public inquiry into Spudco, after the provincial government revealed it settled a lawsuit over the failed potato venture for $7.9 million.
Opposition leader Brad Wall called Spudco the “biggest government business disaster in Saskatchewan history.”
The settlement, plus an estimated $1.8 million in legal and professional costs and an earlier $28 million loss, brings the total loss on the venture to $34.4 million.
Wall said the loss per capita is greater than the federal sponsorship scandal and taxpayers deserve to know what happened.
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“The NDP has never told us the whole story about Spudco and the story they did tell us wasn’t true,” he told reporters.
Peter Prebble, minister responsible for SaskWater, ruled out an inquiry.
He said there have already been four examinations: a 1998 Ernst and Young report authorized by Crown Investments Corp.; the 2000 provincial auditor’s report; an internal look by premier Lorne Calvert’s deputy minister Dan Perrins in 2003 and the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation request that the RCMP investigate.
“There’s been no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.”
Investors and farmers lost money in the government’s attempt to expand the potato industry in the irrigation area around Lake Diefenbaker. Several sued in 2000, and the government launched a counterclaim earlier this year. Most of the latter was dismissed.
Wall said there are still several unanswered questions, including whether the government had legislative authority to proceed and whether it took $3.9 million from a Ducks Unlimited trust account to pay for Spudco losses.
The settlement will be paid from the Crown Investments Corp. budget. The holding company was scheduled to pay a $250 million dividend to the province’s general revenue fund this year, but that will be reduced by the amount of the settlement.
