The province boasts that 70 per cent of companies working on the Regina Bypass project are from Saskatchewan, but a closer look at the list of those companies shows that’s not quite the case.
Companies listed as Saskatchewan businesses by SaskBuilds, the government body tasked with procuring work for the project, include businesses who keep head offices in the United States, Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta. 
“That’s one of the challenges we have, of course: Defining how Saskatchewan companies are, but they do have a significant presence in Saskatchewan in terms of their work force and, so, that’s why they’re classified as a Saskatchewan company,” said SaskBuilds Minister Gord Wyant. 
Nineteen of the 54 companies 35 per cent the province says are Saskatchewan businesses keep head offices elsewhere. Some of them are large companies, like Houston-based Kinder Morgan or Calgary-based Enbridge. 

“Those are all Saskatchewan companies,” said Wyant. “They’re all doing work in Saskatchewan and their employees are being paid here and they’re paying taxes here, so I think it’s fair to include them in the list.”
The list of 54 companies also includes the City of Regina, the RMs of Edenwold and South Qu’Appelle as well as Sakimay First Nation. Crown corporations and the Ministry of Highways are also included. 
Wyant said those working on the project are Saskatchewan taxpayers and the project, which is to cost nearly $2 billion and is expected to be complete in 2019, created 11,000 jobs. 
Rob Herbert, owner of Rob’s Concrete Pumping, said his company was told flat-out they wouldn’t be included on the project. 
“We were told they’re not even interested in our bid, and that’s my money and yours that they’re spending,” he said. 
Instead of working on that project, the company has looked elsewhere for jobs, including opportunities out of province. 
Herbert said missing out on some of the bypass work was a missed chance to grow his company, which is based in Saskatchewan and employs local people. 
“I would probably have two more trucks and two more employees, who are local people,” he said. 
Wyant said SaskBuilds made opportunities available so that those running the bypass project — which includes Vinci, a French company, and Saskatchewan-based Graham Construction — were aware of what’s available in this province. 
“There would have been advertising done, we would have reached out to the companies that had the potential to participate in the bypass,” Wyant said. 
Those at Rob’s Concrete Pumping say they actively tried, but weren’t given the opportunity to put forward a bid. 
“We were flat-out told, ‘No, forget it, you’re not going to get a bid on it, you’re not going to get to be a part of it.’ Flat-out, no,” said Mitch Eden, who helps run the concrete pumping business with Herbert. 
He said instead an Alberta-based company was chosen to do the work they were hoping to do, which was help with the construction of the bridges. 
“We don’t want all of them, but being from Regina, doing a (Saskatchewan) government job, we wouldn’t mind doing one or two of them,” he said. 
Interim NDP Opposition leader Trent Wotherspoon still questions how much of the money spent is leaving the province to out-of-province companies, such as Vinci. 
“Frankly, we’ve got the talent. We’ve got the companies, we’ve got world-class companies, and we’ve got exceptional workers and we need jobs, so this is an important project to get right,” he said. 
dfraser@postmedia.com
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