City Council had an opportunity to confirm their commitment to the Weyburn and District Hospital Foundation, during their Monday evening meeting.
The City of Weyburn made a $6 million commitment to the Hospital Foundation in 2012, which is being paid through a Hospital Levy.
“Your $6 million commitment was an important milestone for our Foundation and it was the largest commitment towards our initial goal of $20 million,” stated a letter by Michael Hoffman, chair of the Hospital Foundation, which was read by Dan Cugnet.
“Your significant commitment helped us to meet our initial goal and helped to convince the provincial government of the community’s commitment to the new hospital.”
Before the government will approve construction of a new health care facility, they need to be certain that the community can meet their 20 per cent funding requirement for construction and the 100 per cent funding requirement for equipping the new health facility. The government also need to be certain that they can meet their 80 per cent funding requirement towards the new facility.
There is an 18-step process that the Ministry of Health has in place that guides the Health Region through the identification, planning, construction and opening of a new health facility. In March 2015, the provincial government announced $500,000 of funding to the Sun Country Health Region to begin the planning process for a new hospital. Currently, the health region is at Step 4 of the 18-step process.
“We have no control over when the hospital will be built, where the hospital will be built, what services the new hospital will provide, what type of equipment will be needed in the new hospital or how much the new hospital will cost,” stated Hoffman.
The Hospital Foundation had estimated an $100 million budget for a new hospital for Weyburn, which is where they set their initial goal of raising $20 million. They raised that $20 million, and are fundraising to equip the new hospital, with a secondary goal of $10 million.
Towards those goals, they have approximately $21.8 million in cash and commitments. Their final goal is to raise as much money as possible, so when the province is ready, so is the Foundation.
