Most Sask. Party money came from companies

The Saskatchewan Party raked in a lot of cash in 2007, with most of it coming from corporations, documents filed with Elections Saskatchewan say.

The governing party, which came to power in the Nov. 7, 2007 election, brought in about $4.8 million in contributions, including $3 million from corporations, $1.6 million from individuals, and about $130,000 from associations and other contributors.

That's more than double the $2.3 million raised by the Saskatchewan New Democrats. More than half of the NDP money, about $1.3 million, came from individuals. The NDP also received about $586,000 from corporations, $165,000 from trade unions, and about $250,000 from associations and others.

The annual release of donors and contributions has been a political football some years, with parties making accusations based on who sends money their opponents' way.

This year, some of the biggest corporate contributors to the Saskatchewan Party include:

• The Concorde Group Corp., a Saskatooncommercial property company that gave about $52,000.
• Saskatoon-basedproperty company Millennium III Properties Corporation, which contributed about $79,000.
• Calgary-based oil company EnCana, which contributed about $26,000.
• Companies connected to the Rawlco radio station companiesand the Rawlinson family, which contributed about $102,000.

On the NDP side, there was a $308,000 contribution from the Affinity Credit Union, although the Elections Saskatchewan report didn't say whether it was a gift or a loan.

There was also a $25,000 contribution from the Canadian Auto Workers,about $58,000 from the United Steelworkers and about $35,000 from the Saskatchewan Professional Firefighters union.

Saskatchewan Party politicians recently accused the NDP of being puppets for organized labour because of donations its candidates received.

However, Saskatchewan Party executive director Bob Mason saidThursdaythe $3 million in corporate donations about 62 per cent of total contributions doesn't make his party beholden to the businesses that gave it.

"There was no promises or no indication given at all in any of our fundraising efforts," he said. "Once again it's just an indicator of the broad support that we had from everybody."

Many individuals also gave a lot of money to the Saskatchewan Party, Mason said.