On a crisp evening last November, Regina’s business elite mingled among gleaming Hot Rods in a spacious private hangar on the outskirts of the city.
With a view overlooking a giant car collection from a skydeck lounge, they dined on racks of lamb and ribs catered by an upscale steakhouse whose regular menu includes $140 steak.
The main attraction of the night, apart from the classic Cadillac sedans and custom Chevrolet convertibles, was Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
In town for the private fundraiser, he was hosted by the Semples, Saskatchewan’s richest family who are invested in real estate, agriculture, construction, mining, and pipeline equipment.
According to local political analyst Simon Enoch, the family business dynasty mistreats workers and acts like the province is their “personal fiefdom.”
Major donors to the Conservatives and the reigning Saskatchewan Party, the family’s connections have helped them secure millions of dollars in contracts from provincial and federal governments.
Their guests in November, who were encouraged to donate between $1,500 to $1,700 to the Conservative Party to attend the fundraiser, were a who’s who of the province’s business elite, including nearly a dozen real estate developers.
The Breach pulled the guest list and the address of the event from fundraising reports that political parties are required to file with Elections Canada.
The Conservative leader has made criticism of Canada’s corporate leaders a fixture of his speeches. In March he told a business audience in Vancouver that “when I’m Prime Minister my obsession—my daily obsession—will be about what is good for the working class people of this country.”
But the private fundraiser in Regina—one of scores of such cash-for-access events Poilievre has held in exclusive clubs and mansions—is a window into the alliances he is striking up with the corporate elite across the country.
“Under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, tycoons like the Semples were tapped for advice and wielded greater influence outside the province,” said Enoch, director of the Saskatchewan office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“Their influence dropped off with the Trudeau government, but I think they’re keen to regain it with a Poilievre victory.”
‘All very hush hush’
The Semple family’s Brandt Industries Canada Ltd., a major supplier of John Deere construction and forestry equipment, is the first private company in the province to break $1 billion in annual sales and employs more than 6,000 people.
They also have a “notorious reputation,” Enoch said.
The company has started construction without getting permits and been ruled against by a labour tribunal for “bad faith negotiating” with an employees’ union. Two workers have died on the job in recent years, and in another instance the company was fined for not providing proper safety equipment. An advertisement for a personal housekeeper on the company payroll was panned on a Regina Reddit group.
Gavin Semple, the family’s business patriarch, has at times tried to cultivate a common man persona, much like Pierre Poilievre. “I view myself as just one of 1,800 employees,” Semple said in 2014.
But his son Shaun, the current company president, has made no such effort. His uber-mansion, which has become something of a local tourism attraction, boasts several pools, a large movie theatre, and its own private golf course.
The November fundraiser for Poilievre was held at the Semples’ restricted company venue, which used to house two hockey rinks, and was purchased for several million dollars to be converted into a high-end garage storing a collection of 120 vintage cars.
When a reporter from The Breach visited the site recently, he was not allowed to enter.
“It’s all very hush hush,” the receptionist told him. “I don’t even think employees are allowed in there.”
Enoch told The Breach that “given his stature in the province, Shaun Semple is the ideal host to bring together like-minded business leaders that are sympathetic to Pollievere’s corporate-friendly vision,.”
In attendance at the November event were corporate lawyers, investment managers, CEOs of manufacturing, transport, and agricultural companies, several elected Conservative politicians including former leader Andrew Scheer, as well as eight members of the Semple family.
There were also a dozen CEOs of construction and development firms. Real estate developers have enjoyed record profits in Saskatchewan, while the province has clocked the highest rent increases in the country.
One guest is president of a meat processor who left workers with unpaid wages when they shut down two processing plants.
How the Semples bought their influence
Government trucks and tractors across Saskatchewan bear the imprint of the Semple’s influence.
“Whether for Crown corporations like SaskPower or SaskEnergy, the ministry of highways, or the City of Regina, they’ll all have a Brandt sticker on them,” said Enoch.
“They’ve done quite well by using their contacts and influences in the government to get a lot of contracts every year, and they’re really the only game in town as far as using some of this equipment.”
The Semples have been long-time supporters and donors to both the Saskatchewan and Conservative parties.
According to the Elections Canada donor registry, they’ve given more than $100,000 over the past 20 years to the federal Conservatives, including thousands for Pierre Poilievre’s leadership campaign.
Provincially, the Semples have given almost $50,000 in individual donations to Saskatchewan Party in the last decade, and another $110,000 in corporate donations.
In 2014, Shaun Semple even built Premier Brad Wall a custom Mustang Convertible with Saskatchewan Roughrider theme. Wall sold it in a charity auction.
That support has paid dividends.
Brandt currently holds millions of dollars in contracts with both the provincial and federal government.
Gavin Semple has been tapped for advice by the federal party in the past, getting invited to an Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty exclusive advisors retreat in 2010.
He also served as a consultant on former Premier Brad Wall’s transition team and was vice-chair of Entreprise Saskatchewan, the provincial government’s now defunct business body that helped outsource economic development to the private sector.
Advocates for more oil and gas, less taxes
Enoch said the Semples and their allies would bring a list of desired policy shifts to a new, incoming federal Conservative government.
“They want to see less environmental regulation, reduced corporate taxation and fewer restrictions on importing foreign labour, the perennial concerns of big business in Saskatchewan,” he said.
Gavin and Shaun Semple have also long been advocates for the expansion of oil and gas pipelines, with Brandt providing equipment and services to pipeline construction.
“So any easing of regulations on the energy sector and pipelines in particular would be something they’d be looking for,” Enoch said.
The day after the private fundraiser, Poilievre hit on many such themes while giving a keynote address at the Saskatchewan Party’s convention.
He praised former Premier Brad Wall for the “biggest tax reduction in the province’s history” and for “unleashing the unbridled power of the free enterprise system.”
He thanked current premier Scott Moe for “leading the charge against the carbon tax.”
Poilievre pledged to repeal “anti-pipeline” federal environmental regulation and replace it with a law that would get energy projects built faster.
Neither the Brandt Group of Companies nor the Conservative Party replied to a request for comment by publication time.
-Files from Alex Birrell
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14 comments
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Anything body is better than Justin Trudeau and the Liberals !
I now expect for balanced journalism the breach to report onn Justin Trudeau’s fundraisers and access for cash events. Or is the Breach another arm of the Trudeau government.
The Breach is obviously in bed with the Trudeau’s Liberals. To attack the Conservatives for something Trudeau had done for years.
Don’t you remember the WE charity which paid the Trudeau family thousands and thousands of dollars?
This is the most biased piece of propaganda I have read this year.
This must have been written by the Liberal Party Machine itself.
Good on the Semple family
In true Reform Party Fashion once again we see these Reformers catering to the rich and Criminals and don’t care what happens to average Canadians. We estimate that they have helped the rich steal $1 trillion from Albertans and now want to do it to Canadians just like Stephen Harper did.
This column sounds alot like every other bought and paid for libreal/NDP biased reporting in Canada. What a joke
Your infatuation with corporations is amusing. It is simply a business structure that could be one person. The Semples have worked hard for many years and built a great company. A few disgruntled employees does not equal a terrible company. This article is laughable for the mental gymnastics it took to draw such ridiculous conclusions.
Great research and great reporting!!! Thank you!
It seems like the only thing The Breech is concerned about is what the leader of the Conservatives is up to. And you could care less that the Liberal Government is in bed with China. You could could care less that China has helped the Liberal Government win the last 2 elections. That just tells me that The Breech is in bed with the Liberal Government.
CBC radio had an expert on security interviewing him last week, he stated Pollivere is a security risk to Canada because
he won’t apply for security clearance. That is a ridiculous statement,and politicking on the part of the government in power. We Cdns know why Polliver will not get a security clearance at this time. A Security Clearance means he cannot advocate for Cdns. Once he is PM, I would guess he is cleared to TOP,top secret automatically, Trudeau is totally breifed on secrets and then keeps them to himself, Cdns be damned!
I want PP to track down this ridiculous spokesman on CBC about security clearances.
UGGGH!! Could NOT read this whole article – air just got too thick! ANYONE but Poilievre – PLEASE!!!
Thanks for the info on who currently ‘owns’ my home province. ….and a clear snapshot of what we’re actually in for if our nebulous ‘desire for change’ elects this mouthpiece for more oil and gas, less climate action.
I pity my grandchildren.