Mayor And City Staffer Likely Off To China As Part Of Carpere Deal

It was called the largest land deal in the history of the City of Moose Jaw when it was announced and now more details show if finalized it will include the Mayor and a City staffer heading off to China to assist the purchaser, Carpere, in selling land at the new Southeast Industrial Park.

At last night’s special meeting of City Council during budget discussions surrounding economic develeopment initiatives it was revealed as part of the Carpere land deal the City is obilged to assist Carpere in selling the land. The obligation would include a trip to China by the Mayor and a city staffer.

“We promised to help Carpere to sell land in the industrial park…this one is proposed for two people to go to China,” city manager Jim Puffalt told Council. Puffalt also informed Council potential investors in China would want to see the mayor on such a trip. The other participant in the trip to China would be a City staffer, Puffalt said but did not name who the person would be.

“These trips would not happen until the agreement with Carpere is complete…at this point of time it is to support the agreement we have with Carpere,” he said.

Saying it was already discusssed at a Strategic Planning Session Mayor Fraser Tolmie said the trip was to help the City economically and was not a holiday.

“It is not a holiday it’s to attract business…one of our biggest trading partners is southeaast Asia,” Mayor Tolmie stated, adding it was “a very good opportunity for the economic development office and the economic development team as a whole.”

The Mayor went on to state places elsewhere in Canada send out teams twice a year to Europe to help attract attention from investors and Moose Jaw is totally reliant upon the Province when they send out trade missions abroad. He argued it was better to have people from the City go out on trade missions abroad as it helps to attract business.

“And sometimes you need that local flavour (to seal a deal),” he said.

Costs for the trips to China were listed at $10,000 and will come from within the existing Economic Development Office budget. Presently the budget is $55,349 annually plus the salary of the Economic Development Officer.

Mayor Tolmie also made the point any trip outside of North America had to be approved by Council under an existing bylaw.

As part of securing the Carpere deal Mayor Tolmie has traveled before to Vancouver for discussions and also paid for an $1,100 dinner at the Grant Hall Hotel and wine as souvenirs for Carpere officials.

At present the Carpere land deal is not finalized as the company has asked for an extension and the City needed more time to meet their end of the deal. The deal will see Carpere buy 780 acres of the new Southeast Industrial Park for $7.8 million. Carpere has already paid a deposit of $780,000 for the land.

The land Carpere is purchasing includes land previously part of a deal that was to see a $100 million pea protein plant built by Canadian Protein Innovation (CPI) serve as the anchor tenant in the new Southeast Industrial Park but after three extenions the deal expired.

It needs to be noted Carpere and CPI are NOT RELATED in anyway.

Additionally SaskPower is proceeding with plans to construct a new natural gas fired electrical generating station in the industrial park which will employ 500 people during its construction.

The item was tabled along with the entire Economic Development Strategy to be voted on later by Council in the budget process.