Provincial government settles Brandt, CNIB lawsuit

After years of questions and back and forth, it appears the controversy over the new Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) headquarters in Regina has been settled.

Several years ago, Brandt Properties Ltd. and the CNIB decided to work together on a new building. The CNIB needed a new headquarters and Brandt offered to build it, with additional space in the building that it could rent out.

At the time, the CNIB had a 99-year lease in Wascana Park, which was where its old headquarters was, and the new building was planned to go in nearly the same spot. But that’s where the controversy began.

Members of the public disagreed with an office building or commercial building being put up in Wascana Park and many asked how it could have been approved. After a lot of questions, some protests and a report from the provincial auditor talking about transparency and procedural fairness, a new approval process was implemented and the project was put on hold.

The project never went ahead and, last year, Brandt filed suit against the provincial government and the Provincial Capital Commission (PCC), alleging that the parties caused loss to Brandt for a number of reasons, including interfering with agreements that were already in place, negligence, breaching lease agreements, and the implementation of new conditions around the project.

Now, the suit has been settled, according to the provincial government, and all related issues have been resolved.

The province said in a statement that as a result, the CNIB’s lease in Wascana Park has been terminated so there won’t be any more construction there. That area will be turned back to green space, and the government will work with the group to find space in existing government-owned property that would suit its needs.

The entire settlement is worth $11.62 million.

The terms of the settlement also had Brandt and the CNIB release the provincial government and PCC from any further claims.