U of R president Vianne Timmons says the contracts, agreements and arrangements the province has been asking about do not exist. U of R president Vianne Timmons says the contracts, agreements and arrangements the province has been asking about do not exist. (File/CBC)

The University of Regina has come back with its hands empty after the province demanded information about contracts and a research institute on campus.

On Tuesday, the Saskatchewan government said the Petroleum Technology Research Centre, located next to the U of R, may have entered into an untendered contract with a private company, ClimbIT.

According to the government, ClimbIT may have had some affiliation with Henry Jaffe. It wants copies of all contracts, agreements or arrangements involving the university, Jaffe, Jaffe's companies and the director of PTRC, Malcolm Wilson.

But on Wednesday, university president Vianne Timmons said there are no contracts to hand over. The U of R has no agreements and has not made any payments since 2010 to companies connected to Jaffe, she said.

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Timmons also pointed out that the U of R neither runs nor supervises the research centre.

Donna Harpauer, the minister responsible for the Crown Investments Corp., said she raised the matter in connection with earlier concerns, reported on by CBC News, about a "sole-sourced agreement" and another research centre at the U of R campus — IPAC-CO2.