Concrete Pumping

Company History

From the mid-eighties and throughout the nineties Gunner Corp was the dominating concrete pumping company within the general area surrounding Regina. The Company operated field offices in Saskatoon, Williston North Dakota, with head office stationed in Regina. The Company was an integral part of the construction industry that occurred during this period, such as Rafferty and Shand Dam, fertilizer and potash plants, Missouri River Bridge Montana, Coop Upgrader, Agridome, slip-formed grain elevators, Conexus, and literally hundreds, if not thousands of projects scattered through the province, into Manitoba and Alberta.

The Company operated the newest and largest variety of Boom and Line concrete pumps, and by taking a professional approach to pumping, at that early time, effectively made concrete pumping a credible placement option…concrete contractors could rely on to get their projects done, on time and without skipping a beat. The Company was a member of the American Concrete Pumping Association and all the pump operators were duly tested and certified.
The Company was extremely proud of its pioneer status regarding the acceptance of concrete pumping, so in 1998 the Company decided to order 4 new boom pumps (one being the longest reach boom pump manufactured at that time) and 2 fairly large line pumps.

Without notice, in late 98-99 the Company was confronted with tax evasion charges by Revenue Canada, which effectively forced the Company out of business. Due to Revenue Canada’s aggressive use of “requirements to pay” the Company was hard-pressed regarding vendor account payments, lease payments, mortgages, and payroll. It was a very sad and nasty period of “abuse of power” by Revenue Canada, which was escalated by fabricated writs used to temporarily seize the Company’s equipment until the Court ordered the equipment be returned.

While the Company was absolutely not guilty, nonetheless…the trial lasted until 2005, with the Company and shareholders convicted. Basically, the Defendant’s had “cash receipts” and “net worth” evidence proof there was no tax evasion. However, the trial court judge (L. Smith) was not only naive basic disclosure practice, but exceedingly biased the Crown, which allowed the Crown to fabricate evidence, withhold evidence, while the Company was foreclosed from entering exonerating evidence. With all this stacking up against the Company, is it any wonder the trial ended in a conviction, bringing the justice system into disrepute from the reasonable person’s standard but not theirs?

Due to this period of turmoil, a number of other concrete pumping companies sprung up to take over the Company’s traditional territory…all have good reliable pumps, therefore the construction sector continued to be well severed.