ESTERHAZY — Planning for a new integrated health care facility in Esterhazy is ongoing, and recently, Rural and Remote Health Minister Lori Carr — who has been on the road for a few weeks touring health facilities and meeting with local leaders in communities across Saskatchewan — toured St. Anthony’s Hospital in Esterhazy.
“I’ve had some really great tours already this summer. I’ve been in the southwest corner, up in the Saskatoon area, Melfort, to now in the Yorkton and Esterhazy area,” she said. “In Esterhazy, my true goal was to be able to get to the facilities that are there, meet with the individuals that are working there, and hear firsthand what’s happening frontline in those facilities, and just get a picture of what those facilities look like and how they operate.”
Fundraising for a new hospital in Esterhazy has been happening for more than 15 years, and the visit by the health minister was one step closer on the path to a new integrated facility that will see St. Anthony’s Hospital and the Centennial Special Care Home combine.
“Obviously, the facilities that are there are quite dated, quite old, so they’re very anxious to, at some point, get some new facilities put in place,” Carr said. “But it was very encouraging to see the individuals that were there and the way they work together as a team to do the best with everything that they have in place right now. It was a great tour.”
In addition to meeting with representatives of Town Council and facility management, members of Mosiac were also at the table.
“Being able to just sit down with all of them and understand more what the community is like, the sheer number of people that work out at those facilities, and the importance of healthcare being available in a short distance for them—it was very encouraging,” Carr said. “They’re all willing to do whatever they can to help that along.”
So far this year, the provincial government has allocated $250,000 in planning dollars to the new integrated facility project in Esterhazy, with an additional $650,000 earmarked for 2026-27 when sewer lines at St. Anthony’s Hospital will be replaced and sanitary waste piping at Centennial Special Care will also be updated.
Speaking to the quarter-million-dollar pledge, Carr noted it was not an announcement on the new facility, but was “definitely a step in the right direction.”
“What that does is that will allow us to proceed on to something called the business case,” she explained. “We know that the facilities will need to be replaced sooner than later, but what the business case does is it looks at locations, traffic flows, is there the right infrastructure in place in the communities to be able to handle an integrated facility like they’re asking for—all of those sorts of things. It allows us to continue on with that work so that when we are prepared to actually put something in the budget for a capital build, that we have all of that background work done.”
Meanwhile, the existing facilities still need to be maintained, hence the line replacements at the current centres.
“It takes a while for a capital build to happen,” Carr said. “We do know that the facilities that are in place still need to be able to run efficiently and safely, and so this is a necessary sanitary waste piping replacement that needs to take place to ensure that that can still happen in the meantime.”
Work on finding a location
A question on many minds is where the new integrated facility will be located. In March 2024, former mayor Grant Forster noted the town did have a few favourable sites in mind, but that a final decision “could take up to a year.” That year has passed, and a fall election brought forth some new faces around the council table.
“The town has done some groundwork,” said Mayor Randy Bot. “We started with five or six locations, and we’ve worked our way down to two locations that we think would be ideal for the new facility once we get there. As of right now, we’re not there, but I know that there are two that the town has in mind.”
An Infrastructure Committee has recently been struck by Esterhazy Town Council in order to create a master plan for the entire community, including where to put the new hospital.
“It’s just going to be more or less a master plan for our infrastructure and where we’re heading in the future, like the next 20 years,” Bot explained. “We’ll have it all laid out for us and know what needs to be done so we’re not doing things twice, or paving a road and then all of a sudden ripping it up two years after. We’ll be prepared for everything.”
Mayor Bot noted that bringing all parties together is an important part of the journey.
“One of our significant steps forward is the creation of the Esterhazy and District Health Care Committee,” he said. “It just united everybody, just to work as a co-ordinated approach to advocate for a new integrated healthcare facility for our region.”
Having everything under one umbrella is also favoured in terms of fundraising dollars, he says.
“All the current and future healthcare-related fundraising dollars will be centralized and managed through the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation,” Bot said. “I encourage everybody to explore the SSCF because it’s a very good foundation. Just the transparency through it is top-notch. That was one of the big things is to have transparency with that money that’s being raised. That’s taken very, very seriously.”
Melville-Saltcoats MLA Warren Kaeding says people are anxious to know when the new facility will move ahead.
“They’re always asking the question ‘when’,” he said when asked about feedback he’s been hearing from local residents. “They’re convinced it will happen, but it’s always easier to fundraise at significant levels when you have a sign-up and you have a date that you’re shooting for.”
He says the new facility will not only meet current needs, but will also be planned to meet needs well into the future.
“They were built in the early ‘60s with that lifespan of 50 years,” Kaeding said of the current buildings. “They certainly weren’t built for the issues of today. They have a limited lifespan, too, and we’re certainly coming to the end of that. It’s important to do the research, assess the area, and then try and figure out what that’s going to look like in 50 years for the area.”
Mayor, Executive Director encouraged by meeting with minister
As for his thoughts on the meeting with Minister Carr, Bot was enthused by the positive conversations held.
“Everybody’s coming together as kind of one entity, and we’re really working hard together to reach the goal of getting this new integrated health care facility,” he said. “That is the goal right now—still, nothing is confirmed. There were very positive conversations, and I feel like we’re going in the right direction. It’s so nice having Minister Carr come here and see the importance of health care in our community and taking that time to come and meet with us. It was very nice to have her out here, and we really appreciated her taking that time.
“It just shows you that they’re taking initiative to make sure that we’re not forgotten about, that health care is on the forefront. It showed me as the mayor of Esterhazy that the Saskatchewan government sees us and it was very positive.”
Nicole Smalley, Executive Director with St. Anthony’s Hospital, agreed that the meeting with Minister Carr was beneficial.
“Our ultimate end game is a new hospital sooner rather than later, and I think we definitely expressed this community’s need for an integrated health centre sooner rather than later,” Smalley said. “She was very receptive, and it was good to have her out here. She’s quite personable and very knowledgeable, so it was just nice to be able to have someone come take a look and just confirm to us all that the information we’re providing isn’t falling on deaf ears, they’re actually taking a look at it.”
Given how long Esterhazy residents have been supporting the plan for a new hospital, patience can grow thin on when action might actually take place; however, Smalley pointed out that these projects do take quite a bit of time.
“This community has been fundraising for such a long time, and I think, too, people don’t realize how long it actually takes to plan and build a new hospital,” she said. “It takes a lot of time, but having her (Lori Carr) here it gives the community hope that things are moving forward. She was very receptive with what we had to say, and our plan is to take those steps moving forward and get something built within this community sooner rather than later.”
The community meetings will keep on happening for Carr this summer, as after a short stop at home in Estevan, she’s off to Nokomis and North Battleford.
“These small rural facilities really do facilitate the healthcare system as a whole because the work that we can do in these facilities with great doctors that live in these communities truly does help prevent them from having to go into the bigger centres, which helps with the flow of patient care everywhere in the province,” she said. “All facilities are important, big or small. A rural community like Esterhazy, as compared to the City of Saskatoon, obviously, people have the same needs, but they are delivered completely different in a big city as opposed to a community like Esterhazy.”
Carr also noted having an enthusiastic Legislative Secretary for Health nearby helps a lot.
“He has been a fantastic addition to our team,” Carr said of Moosomin-Montmartre MLA Kevin Weedmark. “He is enthusiastic, willing to do what he needs to do to help out—whether it be in the Moosomin area or provincially—and of course, he is our Legislative Secretary for Health, so we call on him to attend events or take meetings for us when we can’t attend, and he is just doing a fantastic job.”
Updating equipment
St. Anthony’s Hospital has been the recipient of some much-needed equipment lately. Last year, the Saskatchewan Health Authority invested in a ceiling-mount digital radiology room with wall stand, which is being installed at the Esterhazy facility and set to be operational later in 2025.
“Between the Foundation and Charity Golf—some of our local members have seats on both fundraising committees—they’ve been phenomenal,” Smalley said. “With inflation, prices have gone up, and with both this new X-ray and our Pyxis install, which is our medication machine, prices definitely have gone up. Both committees have been more than willing to provide that extra funding with inflation.”
Smalley also noted how the Esterhazy & District Charity Golf Classic helped fund two new Total Lifts, which were a priority need.
“We had three of them conk out at the same time,” she said. “A quick call to our Charity Golf, and they approved them quite quickly. We got them in, and they’re just so beneficial to our patients and the staff safety. They’ve been wonderful.”
Combined with other local fundraising by groups such as the Ladies Auxiliary, the 12 Days of Christmas, and a $10,000 donation from North Valley Credit Union, Smalley is grateful for the kindness Esterhazy and area have shown.
“This community has just been absolutely phenomenal in providing us funding to keep this place going and upgrading our things,” she said. “We’re really lucky here.”
There has also been equipment recently added to the hospital, funded by the St. Anthony’s Hospital Foundation, valued at $358,000. This includes a telemetry system, a chemistry analyzer with interface, a hematology analyzer with interface, a module for a lab information system, and an automated medication dispensing system.
There are also a couple of fundraisers coming up that will provide a fun way for the public to donate to the new hospital.
“Coming up, the Town, Mosaic and Charity Golf are all getting together and they’re going to do a golf tournament with all funds coming to the hospital for the new build,” said Smalley. “Also on October 17, the hospital here, we’re actually going to put on a gala, which will be a supper and a comedian we’re bringing in. Our goal with that is to raise $20,000; we need a new ECG machine, and we thought bringing the community together and getting some laughs would be a good night. We’ll have a silent auction going. If we can raise that $20,000, we’ll put it towards that ECG, and it takes some pressure off the Foundation with the financial confirmations that they’ve already granted us.”
Equipment coming into the facility also has the future in mind, ensuring the much-needed items can be transferred to the new hospital as well.
“I do appreciate the fact that they’re making sure that any equipment that gets purchased and brought in now whether it’s by the Foundation, or it’s SHA providing it, or by Emmanuel Health — that it’s all transferable to a new building; it all has a useful purpose in the new facility,” Kaeding said. “That’s going to help reduce the cost of that new facility, or furnishing that new facility with equipment going into the future, because some of that is just going to be easily transferable.”
