Legislative Report, 6 October 2004

It looks as though another chapter in the SPUDCO debacle has come to a close, or has just been started depending on how you look at it. According to media reports this week, investors suing the NDP government over the SPUDCO affair have now settled out of court for who knows how many millions of dollars. Details of the settlement have yet to be made public. It is incumbent on the NDP government to provide the public with a timeline as to when they will come clean with the details of this settlement. Taxpayers have already seen $28 million dollars wasted on SPUDCO; now they deserve a full accounting of how much the settlement will cost them.

When the SPUDCO scandal was exposed and the government admitted it had misled the Saskatchewan public for six years, NDP Premier Lorne Calvert promised things would be different in the future. In fact, in February 2003, Calvert issued a response to the SPUDCO affair, in which he stated the NDP government made a mistake for “not having provided greater public clarity to financial arrangements” and that “for mistakes made this government must be accountable.” He went one step further and stated, “When mistakes are made our taxpayers and citizens deserve honest accounting, and our commitment to make sure those mistakes shouldn’t happen again. Today I offer that accounting and that commitment.”

The NDP kept the public in the dark long enough about SPUDCO. Calvert needs to keep that commitment and be forthcoming with the details of the SPUDCO settlement as soon as the courts allow it.

Past Legislative Reports