Sask Party Donors Part 3: Grant Kook
Mapping Grant Kook’s power over the Sask Party and the Saskatchewan government - over you - is one of the most complex and overwhelming issues I’ve ever undertaken.
There’s no real good place to start.
The sheer volume of deals Kook has done that crossover with public money and public interests, nevermind the interests of the Sask Party, creates a murky, incestuous web that’s almost impossible to fully unravel.
But we can try.
We have to, because Kook’s personal imprint on Saskatchewan is shockingly excessive.
The Government of Saskatchewan’s imprint on Kook’s bank account could arguably be described as the same.
I can’t write about all of it in one post.
Instead, what I’m going to do today is introduce you to Kook, whose bizarre journey to the top of the food chain in our province started under the Saskatchewan NDP, who were too stupid to recognize a trojan horse when it kicked them in the face.
It was a “labour-sponsored” investment, you see.
Yes, it was the NDP that started the process of handing your money over to the private sector to manage.
By 2003 they were practically begging Kook to take it.
Brad Wall thought that was just fantastic…in fact why stop there?
Despite his future long-time love affair with the Sask Party government, back in 2004 you could not shut Grant Kook up about how amazing it was to do business in a NDP-led Saskatchewan.
By 2005 the business-hating NDP, always looking out for what’s best for Saskatchewan, were openly schilling for Kook.
So were unions.
😂 😂 😂
Because so many unionized jobs have been created by Golden Opportunities.
Just look at them go scorched earth on building those health care workplaces and not fantasizing about the piles of private medical cash Kook will be drowning in any minute now.
Just by inserting the word “Labour” into his product, Kook struck gold. Unions in Saskatchewan, including SUN, handed out sales pamphlets to their members in hospitals and nursing homes, encouraging them to buy into Golden Opportunities.
Today, the word “Labour” has disappeared from Golden Opportunities history and lexicon.
Sask Party MLAs are heavily personally invested in Kook’s companies, for example:
In case it’s not abundantly clear, what you’re seeing depicted in the above diagram is the fact that even though he was already the chairman of SaskTel, Kook was appointed vice-chairman of the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) in 2017.
A year later, in 2018-19, according to their annual report the SHA paid Kook’s Golden Opportunities $2.15-million.
Six Sask Party MLAs, including former and current Cabinet Ministers, are personally invested in Golden Opportunities and benefited from that government transaction, as well as hundreds of others just like it.
Sask Party MLAs also own companies that interface with the corporations Kook has under management, including those that have contracts with the Sask Party government.
In this post I’m going to focus on the low-hanging fruit and provide two examples of how Kook’s personal interests have benefited from government (your) money.
Then I’m going to publish more pieces on Kook’s Westcap MBO funds, as well as on Golden Opportunities, to show you how hundreds of private Saskatchewan companies, which Kook controls through those funds, benefit the exact same way and so does the Sask Party.
In addition to Westcap and Golden Opportunities, Kook owns the Ramada Hotels in Saskatoon and Regina. You know, the same Ramada Hotels currently being used as a temporary shelter and “one-stop shop” for Scooter’s Ukrainian “refugees”, costing Saskatchewan taxpayers an unknown but guaranteed ridiculous amount of money from the public coffers.
Between 2011 and the end of fiscal-year 2020-21, the Sask Party government spent $3.8-million dollars with Kook’s Ramada hotels, specifically through SaskPower and SaskEnergy. This information is readily available in the Crown corporation payee reports for each fiscal year.
There is a gaping void of SaskTel expenditures with Ramada Hotels during that time period, over which Kook was and remains the chair of SaskTel, presumably because they know that would be a massive conflict of interest.
It’s not like these clowns don’t know the meaning of the concept.
During that same period of time, according to Elections Saskatchewan’s public records of each Saskatchewan political party’s annual fiscal returns, Kook donated over $76000, via his Ramada hotels, to the Sask Party.
While he has only donated $3750 under his own name, over the ten years between 2011 and 2021, Kook has donated a quarter of a million dollars to the Sask Party and its candidates, including $15,000 to Scott Moe’s leadership campaign, through his companies.
If you want to have a closer look at the above diagram, click here to zoom in.
Saskatchewan Crown corporations have been incredibly lucrative for Mr Kook and Westcap Management Ltd.
Saskatchewan Immigrant Investor Fund (SIIF)
Stephen Harper’s government once had a program that allowed immigrants to buy, or invest in a Canadian visa for $800,000 CAD. Eight provinces across Canada participated in the program. Each province had to guarantee the funds they borrowed.
Harper’s government paid commissions to agents who found these investors in other countries. Kook owns a company called Cheung On Investments, which caters to high net-worth Chinese investors. I’m sure that’s a total coincidence.
Regardless, in Saskatchewan, half a billion dollars was lent to private home-construction companies by Westcap Management, every penny of which was backed by the Saskatchewan taxpayer (you).
By the end of fiscal year 2020-21, Saskatchewan’s Crown Investment Corporation (CIC) had bailed SIIF out to the tune of $10-mil.
It used Crown corporation profits to do that, AKA your money.
Despite the $10-million bailout, on top of that Grant Kook received $8-million of your money to “manage” SIIF and that loss.
Remind me again, how high are your SaskPower rates these days?
After explaining why they had to bail out the program, the Sask Party government had this to say:
“Overall, SIIF has been very successful in delivering its mandate to construct more than 1,500 entry level homes with 2,224 units completed in 19 different communities across Saskatchewan.” - CIC 2020-21 Annual Report, pg 133.
That is a stone cold lie.
First of all, there’s no such thing as “entry-level homes”. Why? Put simply, because what’s entry-level real estate for Grant Kook’s kids would be a hell of a lot different than what it would be for my kids or most of yours.
Don’t take my word for it.
“The parameters on the program are, it’s categorized as entry level housing. And that will be dependent on the community in which the houses are constructed. The general guideline is that the sale price must be at or below the MLS [multiple listing service] average for that municipality. So the price can range from anywhere, depending on whether you’re in Saskatoon or Humboldt or Swift Current or Assiniboia, it will vary.” - June 27, 2012 committee meeting, Saskatchewan Legislature
Oh I see. So, entry level like this?
The links are now dead, but that screenshot was taken from Kook’s Head Start on a Home website.
SIIF was introduced in the 2010 budget by Donna Harpauer as a Social Services housing initiative.
Misleading, false propaganda on the purpose of program was repeated continually in the Legislature.
“…Head Start on a Home will be an opportunity for low-to-moderate income earners. And my intent of this program is that we reduce the pressure on the rental market…” - Donna Harpauer, Minister of Social Services, April 7, 2011
“… (Head Start on a Home will) provide low-cost, fixed-rate mortgages* to qualifying families so they can purchase a new home.” - Rod Gantefoer, MInister of Finance, March 24, 2010
*HOH never provided any mortgage products to anyone to purchase a new home.
“…Head Start On a Home program, which I think is a great initiative sort of along the lines possibly of Habitat for Humanity.” - Greg Ottenbreit, November 1, 2010
Lol “…Habitat for Humanity”?
Bold-faced liars, all of them, including Bible-thumping Greg Ottenbreit.
In 2018, Opposition critic for CIC Cathy Sproule asked Minister Joe Hargrave about Westcap’s fees.
“The board actually is looking to review (Westcap’s) management fees… The management fees automatically come down as the program shifts down. But the board is looking at reviewing those fees.” - CIC Minister Joe Hargrave, May 2, 2018
No review of fees was conducted nor was any change made to the fee structure.
Of course the sheer number of Sask Party donors that were recipients of loans was staggering. There were well-established, longtime construction companies like North Ridge Developments accessing this low-interest cash to further their profits, as well as fly-by-night companies that got greedy and then folded, predictably, like cheap suits.
Last time I checked, which was in 2017, the donation amount to the Sask Party from the construction companies that received SIIF funding was well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
SIIF undoubtedly led to the inflation of housing starts from 2011 to 2017, as well as to the artificial inflation of job numbers. The vast majority of what was constructed with SIIF dollars was apartment-style condo units. I’m willing to venture with certainty that the majority went to investors, aka more Sask Party donors, who purchased them as rental properties.
There are no metrics or indicators available to the Saskatchewan taxpayer regarding who purchased SIIF housing, or how their so-called needs were measured or met.
I wrote about the SIIF scheme in 2016 if you’re interested in reading more about its roots, but when you do, keep in mind that quite a bit more has happened since.
First Nations & Metis Fund (FNMF)
The FNMF was funded through and overseen by CIC, meaning through the profits earned from Crown corporations. Profits earned off your utility payments.
Kook was paid around $3-million to manage this fund.
The fund has lost almost all the money it lent out, which was about $10-million. Only a couple of the loans issued from the fund have been paid, the rest were written off.
The stated purpose of the fund in 2012 was to “provide equity or loans to First Nations businesses” to allow them to “grow”. In 2018 Minister Hargrave wrongly described it as a fund for Indigenous start-ups.
The reality was it was a program that funnelled Crown profits through Indigenous groups into white companies predominantly operating in the oil patch. Those white companies then didn’t pay it back, leaving the Indigenous group holding the bag on the money.
At least one of Kook’s loans has terrible optics and even worse implications. In fact, this is one I’ve been considering sending the RCMP for years.
“…want to introduce to you, in your gallery, Al Brigden. Al is the significant other partner of the current member for Estevan….now a part of the extended family of the Saskatchewan Party caucus… I’d also point out that Al’s son Preston yesterday took delivery of the province’s only 2015 Hellcat Hemi Challenger. There will only be nine of them in Canada. I saw a picture of it. It’s sublime, is the name of the Mopar colour. It’s a great modern muscle car and, Mr. Speaker, so I’m sure Al’s a very proud grandfather today.”
Well then.
Wasn’t that special for Preston.
See, two years before Wall blurted out that little gem, a corporation called “Infinite Investments”, owned by the Western Metis Region 3 and connected to the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan (MNS), gave $1.8-million to Preston Brigden.
Again - at that time Preston Brigden was the stepson of Doreen Eagles, who was the Sask Party MLA for Estevan. She had been for seventeen years, from 1999-2016.
Not sure how the MNS managed to buy a company that didn’t exist, because two months beforehand, on February 28, 2013, Brigden Welding had been amalgamated into a company called Force Energy Services.
Doesn’t matter, because none of the companies involved in this scheme ever paid back a single cent of that $1.8-mil.
That’s your money and it should have gone into hospitals or K-12 schools.
CIC began the write-off of Infinite Investment’s “loan” to Brigden and his companies in 2014, one year after Kook issued the funds. It continued until the end of 2020-21, which is when the Sask Party shut down the FNMF. It’s last set of financial statements showed only $144K of the original $1.8-million outstanding, with not a penny ever having been repaid.
In 2015, Preston Brigden’s expensive lime-green sports car was delivered into his care, as per Brad Wall’s orgasmic soliloquy in the Legislature.
Dear Brad Wall,
Do you ever wonder if maybe, I don’t know… you should have just STFU? Like, maybe your ego was just a tad out of control. That maybe you had become so entitled that you thought that rambling about expensive cars and the “extended family of the Saskatchewan Party caucus” (don’t even want to know how Bill Boyd’s DNA fits into that) was actually a smart and appropriate thing to add to the Legislative record for eternity?
- xoxo, Tam
Every year, from 2014 onwards, the stated reason for the write-off of Preston Brigden’s $1.8-million balance was depression in the oil and gas industry in Saskatchewan:
“The overall oil and gas industry continues to be suppressed and the prospects for normal drilling rig working conditions in the near to medium term are minimal.” - FNMF Financial Statements, 2020-21
Oh wow.
Has anyone told Grant Kook?
Cause last I checked, he’s still investing his client’s money in oil and gas industry and its minimal prospects.
So when it comes to working with oil and gas companies unable to repay Saskatchewan people’s money, the “prospects for normal drilling rig working conditions in the near to medium term are minimal.” Yet Golden Opportunities, also managed (owned) by Grant Kook, stocks its “Resource Class” shares almost entirely with oil and gas companies.
Got it.
Infinite Investments doesn’t exist as a business in Saskatchewan anymore and hasn’t for years.
On May 31, 2019, Force Energy Services was removed from the corporate registry as inactive. In 2021 it was administratively reinstated long enough to remove all the directors and shareholders except Preston Brigden, then it was dissolved completely.
In May 2017, Preston Brigden, Glen Lawson and Kory Clearwater started a company called Crewd Oil & Gas Inc,. seventy percent of which is owned by Preston Brigden. It remains active today.
So to recap:
Grant Kook and Westcap Management lent a paper corporation that had no operations or assets, loosely connected to the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan, $1.8-million;
that money was channeled directly into a company majority-owned by a privileged white guy from Estevan named Preston Brigden, who was closely connected at the same time to the Sask Party MLA for Estevan;
Preston didn’t repay any of the $1.8-million because the oil patch was so bad;
yet, during that same time period, Preston started another oil and gas company which is still active today;
every other corporation connected to the $1.8-million is now defunct.
Any questions?
I know I’ve got a whole bunch.
Like I said, perhaps the RCMP is better suited to answer them.
I’ve (uncomfortably) mentioned a few times that researching and writing this series is proving expensive, as every one of the hundreds of ISC documents I need to write this series cost money to obtain from ISC’s corporate registry.
If you would like to chip in on this research so I can keep it coming, you can etransfer me at tammyrobert0123@gmail.com.
Thank you so much to all of you again for your readership, subscriptions and support. I am so grateful - I have the best audience in Canada. T.
I don’t know Grant Kook.
Never met him.
I have fond, though faint memories of Kook’s dad, who owned a restaurant in Outlook, Saskatchewan. I spent much of my childhood in that beautiful little prairie town, which is where my mom was born and raised.
My grandparents, who farmed until they moved into Outlook after retiring, regularly visited “Noisy Jim”. That’s what locals called Kook’s dad, who owned and operated a delicious diner. I can still see both the inside of the diner and Jim Kook in my head. I’m sure I can see the red lamps of the Sunday “smorg” of Chinese and Canadian foods, which was so exotic at the time. My grandparents and great-aunts and uncles piled in there for it regularly.
So I don’t know him, but I do know Kook’s besties, including Saskatchewan’s propaganda-pumping AM talk radio geriatric and his bloviated friends. I can only imagine what Kook thinks of me.
I don’t care. These people don’t scare me at all.
Kook is not alone. He moves with a pack of men who have become incredibly wealthy, in part, off of your money: Doug Emsley, Grant Kook, Greg Yuel, Mitch Molnar, Glen Dow, Randie Beattie and more. It’s a group seemingly growing all the time, in fact.
All the schemes they’re running will blow up eventually… just like they did under Grant Devine.
Those boys are not going to be special and infallible forever… just like Donald Trump.
FAFO.
Talk more about all this soon,
PS: Have you checked out my new Substack?
It’s quite a bit more personal, therefore you have to request approval to subscribe, but so far there’s just been a couple of psychos I’ve had to decline so don’t let that dissuade you! If I don’t recognize the email address or your handle, I will reach out to you.