‘We’ve had no choice’: Brandt CEO explains suit against government

The head of Brandt Industries feels how the company was treated around the project in Wascana Park was unfair and it really had no choice but to take the situation to court.

“We’ve tried our darnedest to try and appeal to common sense here,” explained Shaun Semple, CEO and owner of the Brandt Group of Companies.

It was a years-long process of planning, approvals, pauses and new regulations that ultimately led to the Brandt/CNIB building in Wascana Park being put on hold for two years, and ultimately a lawsuit being filed by Brandt over it.

“We’ve been patiently waiting for years for the CNIB project to move ahead. We were hopeful that the government would honour the process that was put in place and, obviously, honour the agreement that was reached,” said Semple.

Semple said when the company enters into an agreement with another party, it expects the deal will be honoured.

“We believe that we followed all the hurdles along the way but the game and the rules kept changing, which frustrated the project,” said Semple.

At this point, the project is basically dead, according to Semple.

Brandt has never sued the government before, said Semple, but the company isn’t happy with how it has been treated or portrayed. Semple said Brandt has been hopeful that government leaders would be upfront with the public about what the deal was.

“Unfortunately, they’ve bowed to the opposition’s pressure and so we’ve had no choice,” said Semple.

Semple said Brandt operates in Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand and he has never seen a situation like what happened with this project.

“(It’s a situation) where a government — after you had started the project (and) you’ve been issued a demolition permit — has forced us to stop in the middle of the project, then we get blamed for not carrying on, changed the rules, put 34 new steps in front of us, and have to make us go through a whole bunch of process after the project already being approved and tenancy already being laid out in our lease,” said Semple.

“That’s not commercially reasonable and it’s unfair and we were hurt financially by it.”

Semple said the project was philanthropic, with CNIB and the MS Society having been set to move into the building rent free.

“That’s gone away and they’re homeless and I feel bad for them,” said Semple.

Brandt is going to try to support the charities in other ways, but Semple said it won’t be anything like having decades of free rent.

The suit’s statement of claim didn’t specify how much it was asking for and Semple wasn’t willing to give a number but said it’s not in the thousands.

“We wouldn’t enter into a claim like this if it wasn’t for an adequate amount of money,” said Semple.