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The question asked by NDP MLA Cathy Sproule in Monday’s question period couldn’t have been much more simple or straightforward:

How much, in total, have taxpayers shelled out in either lawsuit settlements or in confidential agreements for land purchased for the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) and Regina bypass?

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A fair question, given it’s taxpayers’ money footing the bill and given that it’s the might of government expropriation requiring such settlement.

And what made it that much easier for Justice Minister Don Morgan and his Saskatchewan Party government to answer Monday is that it had already provided at least a partial answer.

During a Sept. 12 meeting of the legislature’s Economy Committee, GTH CEO Bryan Richards told Sproule the cost of land purchases paid by the Ministry of Highways had vaulted to $24.6 million from $13.1 million because “there has been confidential agreements reached in a number of settlements on that particular land.”