When Crescent Point Resources Partnership came up with $4.5 million towards the construction of a new hospital in Weyburn, allowing their local fundraising team to declare their mission accomplished, it re-opened a line of thought for completing an Estevan-based project, too.
Local fundraisers are hot on the trail of acquiring $8 million in pledges and cash that would kickstart an application for a new regional nursing home. They are quickly closing in on that target while the Weyburn committee reached their $20 million goal, thanks in large part to the Crescent Point contribution last week.
Now Sun Country Health Region officials and local administrators are looking at the possibility of bundling the two projects into one major application that would easily pass the qualification tests for P3 funding and trigger some federal funds for both facilities.
Marga Cugnet, president and CEO of Sun Country Health Region, and Greg Hoffort, executive director of St. Joseph's Hospital, which would likely be the host facility for a new nursing home, feel that making a joint application would serve a couple of positive purposes.
First, a joint submission would eliminate the concern as to what facility should get priority on the request list.
Secondly, it is noted that to become eligible for a P3 model, and federal participation, the construction project must be valued at $100 million or more. A new hospital in Weyburn, local experts suggest, would come with a price tag of about $80 million. A new nursing home in Estevan will cost between $30 and $34 million. As separate entities, neither one qualifies for P3 designation. As a joint construction project, however, it easily qualifies.
What's at stake are federal dollars entering the picture at the $100 million threshold, with as much as 20 to 25 per cent of the total cost coming from the federal sources.
Don Kindopp, who is leading the local fundraising efforts for the new nursing home, said his committee welcomes the re-opening of the P3 possibilities since they had been explored earlier, before they realized how high the threshold figure was.
"We can explore P3, while still keeping the concept of a regular project funded the traditional way, in the picture," said Kindopp.
"But P3 is back on the table and puts us back into the picture, and we won't have to keep discussing one project having precedent over the other. I think the province would be excited about this, too, because it puts federal dollars into a project that wouldn't have them otherwise."
Kindopp said the joint application would then lead to the question of "how soon do we get it?"
The P3 model, meaning a private and public partnership, uses a third-party contractor to design, build, finance and provide basic management of the new facilities, releasing the other parties and governments from the obligation of financing the total cost of the project(s).
Hoffort said the opportunity was just too good to ignore, and he and Cugnet agreed that moving in this direction would probably remove some conflicts between the two cities regarding whose project should receive priority. They said it could be a win-win scenario for both communities.
It was noted that neither project has received a green light from provincial authorities yet, but with one committee having already met the funding criteria and the other one at around 85 per cent of their goal, it would only be a matter of a few months before a formal application would have to be considered at the provincial level.
"I know it's something we'd like to explore, for certain," said Kindopp.
