Moe filed for bankruptcy in 2000 after farm woes
Premier Scott Moe filed for bankruptcy in early 2000, just over a decade before he entered politics.
Public records show that Moe, who was 26 years old at the time, had $208,500 in assets and $320,900 in liabilities when he made the filing under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
Federal government documents note that the appointed insolvency trustee was discharged in September 2004. The records do not, however, outline the circumstances of the bankruptcy.
In an interview on Monday afternoon, Moe said he and his wife began buying equipment and renting land with the aim of establishing a farming business in the mid-1990s, while attending university.
The farm went through price challenges, as well as an extremely dry year followed by an extremely wet year that soaked up more money as the cost of drying grain increased, and it ultimately became insolvent, Moe said.
“It was challenging. It was disappointing,” he said.
“But we were able to persevere through that, my wife and I. We put our heads down and we relied on one another and we trusted in one another and we went to work.”
Asked whether the bankruptcy is a political liability, Moe emphasized that he is one member of a broader team responsible for the province’s finances, and it was his response to a personal financial situation as it unfolded.
“I look at how I handled this situation in the months and years after — I never shied away from this situation. I faced it. That took a degree of courage,” he said. “I put my head down after and I went to work, and I promised myself that I would make every day count, I would not allow this to happen to me or my family again. I live by that resolve here today.”
Moe said while it’s unclear what he could have done differently at the time, the experience gave him a new respect for entrepreneurs and he has learned from the experience.
This is not the first time the 44-year-old’s past has come up since he entered politics in 2011.
It emerged during the 2016 election campaign that Moe had been convicted of drunk driving in 1992.
The Sask. Party disclosed the conviction after Postmedia News reported on another Sask. Party MLA’s impaired driving conviction.
Five years later, Moe was ticketed for driving without due care and attention in connection with an early-morning highway crash that left a woman dead.
That incident was first reported by the Regina radio station 980 CJME.
Moe subsequently told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix that while he doesn’t remember much of what happened before or after the collision, it occurred while he was crossing a highway while driving to work and alcohol was not a factor.
“Quite frankly, some of them, I would like to have those days back, but the fact of the matter is they do shape who I am today, they do shape my decisions each and every day as I go through my life," he said at the time.
Moe defeated four other candidates to secure the Sask. Party leadership at a convention in Saskatoon on Jan. 27, and was sworn in as Saskatchewan’s 14th premier in early February.
Since launching his leadership bid, Moe has pledged to follow former Premier Brad Wall’s threeyear plan to eliminate a $1.2 billion deficit and balance the budget by the end of next year.