Brandt suing Sask. government over Wascana Park development

The controversial Brandt Office project in Wascana Park appears to be dead, with the company suing the province for damages.

The former proposed CNIB site in Wascana Park was to become home to a four storey office building. Brandt Properties currently plans to fill in the hole and walk away from the project.

“I think right now the building project is dead. I mean right now it would be hard for us to build any building with the rules again changing the way they are,” Shaun Semple, the president of Brandt Industries, said.

Brandt is suing the provincial government, which controls the land, alleging procedural and political interference.

“You know our family and our company were slandered in this process and that was all due to the government not honouring, not saying what happened and we’re not happy about it,” Semple said.

Brandt first proposed the project in 2014. CNIB and other charities were to occupy the main floor rent free. Vocal protest to commercial development in Wascana Park saw the province temporarily pause the project and now it’s in the approval process.

“It’s probably never a positive when a company is suing a government. I mean that’s pretty basic and that’s up to them to comment on. We’ll let the court case play out,” Don McMorris, Minister in charge of the Provincial Capital Commission, said.

Brandt is the world’s largest dealer of John Deere industrial equipment. It employs 1,000 people in Regina and was planning expansion of head office functions in the city.

“So will that affect where our investments go in the future and so on? Time will tell,” Semple said.

Brandt said it will help CNIB in some other way, after being left without a building.