City Met With Newspaper And 2016 Pea Protein Plant Probe Killed

By Robert Thomas

Just who knew what and when regarding civil and criminal allegations in Germany against the director of a now defunct plan to build a pea protein fractioning plant in Moose Jaw is now in question. But what is not in question is Mayor Frasier Tolmie and two former members of Administration met with the newspaper’s publisher in November 2016 where the allegations were part of the discussion and the story was killed.

Those are the revelations revealed in a series of internal City of Moose Jaw documents, leaked documents and interviews with individuals directly familiar with what happened at the Moose Jaw Times-Herald in November 2016.

The Times-Herald was at the time working on an investigative story into Michael Schoenert a director of Canadian Protein Innovation (CPI). The Times-Herald probe was based upon published news reports from Germany - they had discovered through a simple Google search - which laid out allegations of criminal wrongdoing against Schoenert at his former employer Emsland-Starke. The probe at one time had no less than three staff reporters working on the story in one capacity or another. Emsland-Starke additionally had issued a news release dealing with the allegations surrounding Schoenert.

In documents obtained through a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests the City of Moose Jaw prevented a former Moose Jaw Times-Herald reporter access to ask City Hall questions. According to the documents the reason for disallowing the former City Hall beat reporter access was based upon allegations the reporter had acted abruptly and inappropriately at a November 9, 2016 open house held in City Council chambers when CPI was introduced to the community. Allegations denied by the Times-Herald’s former publisher.

“After your abrupt and inappropriate behaviour at the CPI public event in Council Chambers last week/ we have decided to refrain from providing comment to you completely. Your behaviour has been discussed with Roger Holmes, Matt Noble and Mayor Tolmie. If a Times Herald colleague of yours would like to take over such stories/ we will consider working with them,” former City of Moose Jaw communications manager Carol Reynolds-Wittman wrote in an email to Will Stodalka a reporter at the now defunct Moose Jaw Times-Herald. See Email below.

Canadian Protein Innovation or CPI was a German firm that planned to build a $100 million pea protein fractioning plant on lands adjacent the sewage treatment plant. The City annexed lands from the RM of Moose Jaw, applied for funding from the federal government to install the required infrastructure, spent time assisting in the development of the project and was to provide CPI with incentives by holding the water rates at 2015 levels for five years after the plant opened and waving property taxes for five years under a job creation program. The plant was touted as being the anchor tenant at the new Southeast Industrial Park creating 65 highly skilled jobs.

CPI was vetted and introduced to the City by the Province.

In documents obtained through a different FOI request to the Province, the provincial government was - subject to budget discussions - prepared to waive five years of corporate taxes on CPI’s profits. Part of the financing for the CPI project was planned through the Farm Credit Corporation. Alanna Koch, the Deputy Minister for former Premier Brad Wall, was according to the FOI personally working on the CPI file.

Product produced by the plant were to be shipped through the scandal plagued Global Transportation Hub.

According to published German news reports Schoenert was facing both civil and criminal allegations. The German news reports stated in late 2014 Schoenert was summarily dismissed from his previous employer the Emsland-Starke potato starch factory under suspicion of embezzlement into the tens of millions of Euros. In August 2019 Schoenert was in German criminal court under allegations of bribery and corruption. Schoenert is considered innocent until the allegations are proven in court.

SEE RELATED - The Rejected Column

The option for CPI to build a plant in Moose Jaw expired in November 2019 after three extensions were granted on the land purchase by Council.

Roger Holmes is the former publisher at the now defunct Moose Jaw Times-Herald and confirmed he attended a meeting with Mayor Tolmie, former city manager Matt Noble and former communications manager Carol Reynolds-Wittman where the subject matter was his reporter’s - Will Stoldaka - alleged actions at the CPI open house on November 9, 2016.

Holmes told MJ Independent “I can remember it quite clearly” - the meeting with the Mayor and two former members of Administration. He said that although the reporter in question may have asked questions which were aggressive that there was no discussion at the meeting regarding physical aggression by the reporter in question.

Holmes said the subject matter of the meeting were concerns about his reporter asking “too many questions” about the published German reports and “he asked inappropriate questions and was basically embarassing this guy (Schoenert).” He confirmed he was aware there was a reporter working on a story about the criminal allegations reported in the German press.

“To the best of my knowledge there was no mention of Will being physical,” he said.

“They didn’t like the questions he asked, they were not innapropriate questions but questions that were uncomfortable,” he said, adding “I think Will asked the right questions.”

Asked if Mayor Tolmie knew about legal problems Schoenert was facing in Germany Holmes replied he beleived the Mayor did.

“I would swear to that I was there at a meeting…I believe so and I had a meeting with the Mayor, (former) city manager (Matt Noble) and (former) communications manager (Carol Reynolds-Wittman) about it.”

Holmes claimed Mayor Tolmie had told him that the Mayor did indeed speak to Schoenert about the legal problems back in Germany. Schoenert had told the Mayor the legal problems back in Germany were “politically motivated and a civil matter. And not criminal in nature.”

“The Mayor believed these were civil matters. I said if they were civil matters they are not the problem of the newspaper. I said if they are were a criminal matter they were a "problem of the newspaper…I left it at that,” Holmes said. He added the questions were as best he could understand “embarssing the guy (Schoenert).”

In a written response to a series of emailed questions Mayor Tolmie said it was difficult to remember the exact details of a meeting which took place over three years ago but the meeting did entail discussion about a Times-Herald reporter.

“You are asking about incidents from three years ago, so while it would be difficult to recall every detail, I can confirm that: I was in attendance at a meeting with Mr. Holmes and the then-City Manager and Communications Manager to discuss Mr. Stodalka’s erratic and aggressive physical behaviour at the public meeting. During that meeting there was no discussion about Mr. Stodalka’s job status, only his behaviour. The City has a Policy related to decorum in the Public Gallery and a Policy on a Respectful Workplace,” the Mayor said in a statement, adding “I was elected to office after the initial CPI agreement was announced.  It has been several months since those negotiations ceased and, as you are aware, the City has signed an Offer To Purchase with Carpere Canada for southeast industrial park land that was part of negotiations with CPI.”

Mayor Tolmie did not directly answer questions asking if he or any other member of the City had done a simple Google search into the allegations surrounding Schoenert, when he became aware of Schoenert’s legal problems, who had informed him of the legal problems and whether those legal problems were criminal or civil in nature. Nor did he answer if Shoenert had discussed the legal problems with him. Or if he had relayed the legal allegations against Schoenert to the rest of Council.

Speaking on the condition of anominity former Moose Jaw Times-Herald editorial staff said they were well aware of probe into the Schoenert criminal allegations in Germany. They also confirmed Schoenert had been asked questions about the published reports about the criminal allegations in the German press. Additionally they confirmed Holmes had a meeting with the City about it and there were no allegations of physical aggressiveness brought up at that time.

Following the meeting between Holmes and the City the editorial staff were summoned to a meeting where they were told the story had been put on hold because publishing it was “embarassing to the City.”

Reached for comment Reynolds-Wittman did not respond. According to published media reports she left employment with the City after a leave of absence and was considering taking legal action for constructive dismissal due to an extremely stressful workplace.

Former city manager Matt Noble is involved in legal action against the City for constructive dismissal and could not be contacted.

An email requesting comment from the Province because they had found, vetted and brought CPI to the City of Moose Jaw was not responded to.

Reached by MJ Independent former Moose Jaw Times-Herald reporter Will Stodalka initiallly declined comment because he had moved on in life. After sending him copies of the emails he agreed to comment.

“I believe that what the reporter writes on, and not the reporter’s own experiences, is the story. I feel that my actions pursuing that particular story were appropriate,” Stodalka said in a statement.

Holmes said about Stodalka “he was a good reporter. He wrote some good stories.”