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The provincial government is defending an investment fund that lost more than $8 million by saying it was never meant to earn money, but to engage Indigenous people in the economy.

The Saskatchewan NDP challenged Crown Investment Corporation Minister Joe Hargrave to account for the loss to taxpayers in what Opposition critic Cathy Sproule called a “slush fund.”

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During three hours of questioning in the Crown and Central Agencies Committee on Wednesday, Hargrave could point only to a handful of jobs created by some of the multi-million-dollar investments from the First Nations and Metis Fund.

One, worth about $1.8 million, eventually reached a welding company and was later written down to $250,000. It created four jobs, only two of which went to Indigenous people.

Another, which funded a risky $3-million potash investment, is now essentially worthless. It created no jobs, though Hargrave noted that it could have created many had it been successful.