Weyburn – Weyburn General Hospital is one of the oldest hospitals in the province, and Yorkton’s is not much newer. Both are showing their age. Similarly, the Estevan Regional Nursing Home, at 50 years old, is also becoming antiquated. So what is the state of affairs for the replacement of these three medical facilities? Over a series of four stories, Glacier Media looked into each of these health care facility projects, with a response from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, local fundraising committees and reaction from NDP health critic Vicki Mowat. This is the first of the four stories.
On a sunny day back in September, 2014, Crescent Point Energy Corp. donated $4.5 million to Weyburn’s new hospital project. The company, one of Saskatchewan’s two largest oil producers, joined its board member, Kenney Cugnet, whose own family donated $1 million for the new hospital. A month later, Cugnet passed away. Those donations, at the time, were believed to put the community “over the top” for its $20 million fund raising goal for a new hospital.
But come 2020, there’s still no new hospital, nor dirt scratched for a new location. The Ministry of Health said in an email on July 13, “The Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Health Authority are in the final planning stages of then Weyburn Hospital Project. A government decision on the next stage of the project is expected in the near future.”
Weyburn & District Hospital Foundation chair Jeff Hayward said on July 15, “We're still in a waiting and holding pattern here, with hope that we're going have something.”
He noted it was the money originally pledged by the province was in the recent budget.
“The process is moving along, and it was coming down to site selection,” he said.
The Foundation raises money, but has no input into things like site selection, he noted.
Hayward clarified that $20 million is “committed and in-cash funds of over $20 million now. We don’t have that all in cash. We have commitments for up to that, so we’ve met our original goal there.”
That goal does not take inflation into account. He noted the goal was attained during oil boom times.
An annual levy for the new hospital that was collected by the City of Weyburn ended in 2020, according to Hayward.
As for the cost of the facility, Hayward said, “I think we always thought of about a $100 million facility, whatever that buys you. And it might not even be that much, but that's sort of what the basis was that we went off of.”
With regards to the size of a new facility, he said, “I know the steering committee will come up with whatever seems relevant and needed for the Weyburn area.
“A new facility would be a good start. And that's kind of what we're hoping for. What's inside it, and what it's comprised of, they will have their process for determining that and what's most appropriate,” he said, referring to the provincial government and the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
“I remain hopeful and confident that we'll hear something in the very near future about this,” Hayward said, nothing that the COVID-19 crisis has taken precedence of late.
Next story Saturday:
Yorkton gets planning money for new hospital, has raised $1 million to date
