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Wyant responds on Sask. Hospital

The provincial government has responded to the release this week of Freedom of Information emails on Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford by the NDP.
gord wyant
Deputy Premier Gord Wyant

The provincial government has responded to the release this week of Freedom of Information emails on Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford by the NDP.

Gord Wyant, deputy premier and minister for Sask Builds, released a statement in which he pledged the government is continuing to monitor the situation at Sask. Hospital and remains committed to a full facility audit.

“Our government continues to monitor the situation at the Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford to ensure patient and staff impact is minimal. We understand repairs are underway to fix the deficiencies that have been identified to date. Our government has committed to a full facility audit of the SHNB, which is expected to be completed in spring and we will continue to work with Access Prairie Partnerships as we move through the process,” he stated.

“We believe in building public infrastructure in the way that most makes sense. In the case of the SHNB, the P3 model has saved taxpayer dollars and protected taxpayers from risk and associated costs.”

Wyant also addressed accusations by the NDP that the government knew about construction defects well before the grand opening.

The NDP had pointed in particular to one freedom of information email from Jill Zimmer dated March 13 on the subject of “SHNB – Roof Leak.” She stated: “With the spring thaw, some major issues with the roof at SHNB have come to the forefront. The roof was a serious bone of contention during design and construction, and unfortunately, the Authority’s concerns were well-founded.”

Wyant’s response is as follows;

“In any build – be it P3 or traditional – the government does not select or approve individual materials for use during construction. That is done by the private sector partner regardless of the model. In the case of the SHNB the selection of products would have been up to APP and its subcontractors. We understand that in this instance, two different products were used but provided by the same manufacturer and the builder is seeking recovery from the supplier. While product integrity is not the responsibility of government under the P3 model, government did raise this question with APP at the time of the building envelope failure in fall 2017. APP indicated there was no issue with the roof, which was constructed at the same time but used different material. It was not until a spring melt in 2019 that the roof failure was identified through months of extensive testing that APP undertook.”

Wyant’s statement also responded to criticism from NDP critic Vicki Mowat about the involvement of out-of-province and out-of-country companies in the project. “We need to be building major infrastructure with Saskatchewan companies, Saskatchewan materials and Saskatchewan workers,” she said in a news release.

Wyant’s response:

“In regards to the employment of Saskatchewan contractors on infrastructure projects, our government has listened to our local companies and worked hard to ensure they are represented in our economy. In 2014, Priority Saskatchewan was established to enable local companies to compete in and win contracts fairly. Further, the Single Procurement Service was created within SaskBuilds in April 2019 and it its first six months of operations, over 250 procurements valued at over $148 million were completed — 92 per cent of these procurement activities awarded to Saskatchewan based companies with a value of approximately $137million. Regarding SHNB, this project created 1,500 construction-related jobs, with 31 Saskatchewan-based companies involved in the project, and almost 20 per cent of all construction hours having been completed by First Nations and Métis workers.”