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New Beginnings late to the task of fundraising

The campaign to build a new Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford has been going on for decades. The issue seemed to be inching toward the front burner when NDP MLA Len Taylor was health minister in Lorne Calvert’s government.

The campaign to build a new Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford has been going on for decades.

The issue seemed to be inching toward the front burner when NDP MLA Len Taylor was health minister in Lorne Calvert’s government. The election of a Sask. Party government in 2007 sent replacement of Sask. Hospital back to the pantry shelf for another seven years or so.

The announcement of the building of the new hospital last fall was met with jubilation throughout the Sask. Hospital community, the Battlefords and surrounding areas. But now the other shoe has dropped.

Prairie North Health Region CEO David Fan appeared at the City of North Battleford Community Planning meeting Monday asking for a whole lot of cash. Fan says although the province pays the cost of constructing the building, funds must be raised locally to furnish and equip the facility.

Fan says it has been long-standing government policy that furnishing and equipment are paid for locally.

Fan was speaking on behalf of the Saskatchewan Hospital New Beginnings fundraising campaign, which is tasked with raising the $8 million needed to achieve that task. The campaign is asking the City, the Town of Battleford and the RMs of North Battleford and Battle River to cost-share 50 per cent. He says a special levy of $200 per capita would foot the bill.

Ouch! After decades of campaigning for a new hospital it is just now that efforts are underway to raise funds for the furnishing and equipment? The Saskatchewan Children’s Hospital, now reported as 10 per cent complete, will be furnished and equipped through the efforts of the Saskatchewan Children’s Hospital Foundation. That foundation has been on the campaign for years, making the push prior to even one nail being pounded at the construction site.

Our research indicates that foundation has never asked the City of Saskatoon or surrounding municipalities for funding.

Why this void for Saskatchewan Hospital? It too is a provincial facility and it seems local municipalities shouldn’t be called upon to foot the bill through their taxpayers.

It could be argued it was premature to begin raising funds before the new facility was to become a reality, but I would argue the community and the province would have supported such a push. Everyone knew the hospital had to be replaced, whether it was located here or elsewhere, and a province-wide campaign to support furnishings and equipment would have had the same positive response as the children’s hospital fundraising long before the hospital was a reality.

In our newsroom we have often wondered why there has never been a fundraising organization, such as the Battlefords Union Hospital Foundation, to support the needs of Saskatchewan Hospital. It now appears there is a dire need for such an organization, but time has run out.

Fan was asked what would happen if the municipalities don’t agree to the levy. He responded, “I haven't even contemplated that.”

Given the tepid response to the New Beginnings proposal to council members this week, it’s possible the organization should begin contemplating and finding a way to raise funds that reflect the provincial scope of the facility.