REGINA - The opposition New Democrats have spent a frustrating last few days trying to get answers on efforts to locate a new Costco at the Global Transportation Hub.
The flap erupted last week at Regina city council when it was revealed that Costco had backed out of a proposed Westerra location and had been looking to locate in the Global Transportation Hub. Council ended up approving almost $7 million in an incentive package to keep Costco in Westerra.
Since then, the blame game has been on, with the provincial government accused of competing with the City of Regina to lure Costco to the GTH. Opposition attempts to extract apologies from the Minister for the GTH David Marit, and to get the provincial auditor involved in investigating what happened, have both gotten nowhere.
On Monday, opposition critics hammered Marit in Question Period, demanding he apologize for costing Regina taxpayers nearly $7 million.
But no such apology was forthcoming from Marit, who instead pointed to the jobs the GTH created.
“Let’s look at what the Global Transportation Hub has brought to the city of Regina and the community and the province, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over 1,600 jobs have been created through the Global Transportation Hub. Over $1.8 billion by the end of 2025 will be spent on the Global Transportation Hub and the economy of this province,” said Marit.
After Question Period, Marit was unavailable to meet the media on the issue, with GTH CEO Daniel Hersche taking questions instead for the second day in a row. An NDP media release later characterized Marit as having “ducked a scrum with reporters.”
In speaking to reporters, Hersche made it known that it was not the GTH that had reached out to Costco about locating there. Rather, it was through their real estate broker, Collier’s.
“We use Collier's as a realty broker, and so Costco's agent would have approached Collier's about potentially locating out of the GTH,” Hersche said.
“Some of those initial discussions were also: they saw an opportunity out of the GTH, they could get more land, and so that could actually result in some additional businesses.” Hersche also noted there was mention they could add "last mile delivery" as part of those services into the future.
“So when we were initially brought that, those were some of the factors that we were considering, and obviously when you talk about last mile distribution, it's got clear alignment with the GTH, but obviously they would still have that retail component of Costco. And so... it wasn't just an easy decision to make, it was something that we definitely did a lot of analysis on to see if it was the right fit for us.“
The NDP’s Jared Clarke made clear he was not satisfied with what transpired in the Assembly that day.
“Today, we asked the Minister to apologize four times in the House for costing Regina taxpayers an extra $7 million to get a second Costco in Regina,” said Clarke.
“He failed to do that. Really disappointing to see that. Costco is something that we want to see in Regina. We think the minister should have taken some responsibility for what has transpired in costing Regina taxpayers that $7 million.”
On Tuesday morning at Public Accounts Committee, the Opposition raised the issue again. This time, NDP MLA for Saskatoon Silverspring Hugh Gordon introduced a motion calling for the Provincial Auditor to investigate.
His motion requested that “the Provincial Auditor perform a special assignment investigation to examine the actions, procedures, policies, and expenditures of the Global Transportation Hub and its recent attempt to negotiate a deal for the construction of a Costco store near Regina.”
But Gordon’s motion didn’t get very far, with the Sask Party majority on the committee defeating the motion 4-3.
“Another day and more Sask. Party MLAs getting involved in covering up this mess,” Gordon said in a news release afterwards from the NDP. “If there was nothing to hide, they would welcome the investigation to clear the air. Instead, the only thing that’s clear is the Sask Party doesn’t want the people of Regina to know why they’re getting stiffed with a $7-million bill.”
