Sask. government nets $29 million in STC sale

Dec 13, 2017 | 6:43 PM

There is a $29 million dollar gift under the government’s tree this year courtesy of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC).

That is how much is estimated to have been paid during the recent sale of the buildings and assets of the former provincial bus company.

But there is little other information that is being released, at least for now.

Minister Joe Hargrave said part of the contracts between buyer and seller keeps that information private.

“It was a good open contract, open bid process that was conducted, but in most cases, it is commercial information those companies just don’t want released,” Hargrave told reporters Wednesday.

However, there is some information government is providing to the public.

The 45 coaches and other vehicle equipment, like trailers, were bought by Ontario based liquidation and asset management company Hilco Industrial.

They were one of four companies that placed a bid on the fleet of vehicles, although the price paid isn’t being released.

It isn’t yet clear who bought the Prince Albert, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon depots but if there are any renovations done to building, that information might not remain hidden.

The Regina bus depot was purchased by the city for the Regina Police Service, which will serve as an expansion to the police headquarters across the street.

“People can rest assured that we’ve got very best value for the assets, it was a good process, an open and transparent process and a number of people that submitted bids on it,” Hargrave said.

The appraised value of the assets was assessed by KPMG, the firm which managed the sale, to be $25.7 million.

Initially Hargrave said the government received “just shy” of that figure but that was corrected a couple of hours later.

The NDP’s Carla Beck isn’t sure the government got the best value for the assets and wants far more transparency.

“These were our assets, these belonged not to the government but to the people of Saskatchewan. We have a right to insist that we got full value,” she said.