STC wind down cost $7.6M, banked $27M in sales

The cost of shutting down the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) was $7.6 million, according to the corporation in charge of the government's Crowns. 

Most of that $7.6 million was paid out in severance to former employees, including the money an arbitrator ordered the province to pay 95 employees after it found STC was in violation of the labour code.

The government said it banked $27.9 million from the sale of the bus company's assets, such as buses to former depots. 

As of Friday only one building — a maintenance facility in Regina — had yet to be sold. The government said it expects that building to be sold by next spring. 

Crown Investments Minister Joe Hargrave said the government is bound by confidentiality agreements so it cannot reveal the sale cost of individual items. 

"In those businesses, it's highly competitive and people don't want to reveal how much they overbid or underbid on any of those assets 'cause it affects any future bids, not only with our government but with other companies that they deal with."

The Saskatchewan NDP isn't satisfied with that argument. NDP MLA Nicole Sarauer said that because these were public assets, members have a right to know details about their sales .

"This wind-down has had a huge impact on a lot of people," she said. 

In 2017-18, STC paid $22 million in dividends to the Crown Investments Corporation (CIC) — the government entity in charge of the provincial Crowns. 

In total, CIC earned $503 million, an increase of $104 million from the previous fiscal year. It transferred $205 million in dividends into the province's general revenue fund. 

SaskPower has $7.9B debt

SaskPower was the only Crown corporation not to transfer a portion of its earnings to the corporation and, by extension, the government's coffers. 

The last year SaskPower paid a dividend was 2011.

The CIC cited SaskPower's debt load, which now sits at $7.9 billion due to capital spending on upgrades to major infrastructure and the decision to keep rate increases moderate

CIC president and CEO Blair Swystun gave no timeline for when it could start to pay. 

"It very much depends on the cost of various generation option that SaskPower's considering in its plan to get to 50 per cent renewables by 2030," he told reporters Friday.