It’s now clear that the NDP had responsibility for the Crocus scandal and for the losses suffered by more than 33,000 Manitobans who put their hard earned money, and even retirement funds into Crocus.

In 2000, Greg Selinger, Manitoba’s Finance Minister, prepared a written Briefing Note and made a presentation to members of the NDP Cabinet, including the Premier. The Briefing Note indicated that Crocus managers had only recently realized that there would be a liquidity problem in Crocus and that liquidity problem could arise over the next few years. What is liquidity? It’s cash that is required to redeem shares in Crocus. You, as an investor, would certainly not put money into an investment unless at the end of the investment period you would get at least part of it back. This is what was happening at Crocus. Crocus did not have the money to pay back investors when the investment matured. Think of it in these terms – would you put money into an investment or account at your Credit Union or your Bank if you knew that the money or even part of the money would not be returned? Crocus management warned the NDP and Greg Selinger about this liquidity problem in 2000 that Crocus was facing a cash crunch and may not be able to pay investors who wanted out. What did Greg Selinger and the NDP do with this information? Absolutely nothing!

Did Greg Selinger and the NDP have a duty to warn unsuspecting Crocus investors? You bet they did! Greg Selinger’s presentation to the NDP Cabinet, including the Premier indicated that the majority of the thousands of Manitobans who invested in Crocus were neither wealthy nor sophisticated investors. The presentation further stated that “Crocus has not done what its Prospectus says it will do, which is to arrange its investment portfolio so that funds are made available through liquidation of investments to fulfill requests for redemption.”

As a potential investor in Crocus, if you knew what the Finance Minister, the Premier and the rest of the NDP Cabinet knew in 2000 about the state of Crocus would you have continued to purchase shares in Crocus? If you knew that Crocus was having trouble to raise enough cash to pay back the value of your shares when you wanted to sell them, would you have invested in Crocus? If you knew that Crocus had not done what its investment Prospectus has publicly said it would do, would you have continued to put money into Crocus, or would you have even considered purchasing shares in Crocus?

Greg Selinger, the Premier and the entire NDP Cabinet failed to disclose information that Crocus was having problems. Instead, the Premier, the Finance Minister, and all their Cabinet colleagues continued to trumpet the strength of Crocus until late 2004 when the Crocus fund collapsed. The message sent to all Manitobans by the NDP was that it was safe to invest in Crocus, yet the NDP knew full well that Crocus was having problems. The NDP enticed thousands of Manitobans to pour more money into Crocus and hoped that the Problem would disappear on its own. As a result, more than 33,000 Crocus shareholders lost more than $60 Million.

That’s why we have demanded that the Finance Minister resign. He had a moral and a legal duty to protect Manitoba investors – and he failed miserably in that duty!