REGINA - A new treatment facility in Lumsden has still not opened its doors, and it has become an issue at the Saskatchewan Legislature.
Earlier this year the province had announced it would open 60 treatment spaces at the EHN Willowview Recovery Centre in Lumsden. It is to be a privately-run but publicly-funded inpatient addictions treatment facility, located at what was at one time the St. Michael's Retreat of the Franciscan Friars of Western Canada. The treatment centre is part of the government’s commitment to opening 500 treatment beds over five years.
The province stated in their January news release that there were “plans to open in Spring 2024.” But there have been lengthy delays in getting the building open, to the point that it is still not open to inpatient services.
Saskatoon Centre MLA Betty Nippi-Albright was trying to find answers during Question Period on Thursday, in an exchange recorded in Hansard.
“Mr. Speaker, these 60 beds are closed. Front-line staff say there’s no timeline for when they will open. One employee says there’s too much red tape. Another employee even said that Saskatchewan people struggling with addictions should travel to Toronto because there’s already a year-long wait-list, and these beds haven’t even opened. Mr. Speaker, when will this government open these in-patient beds?”
Minister of Remote and Rural Health Lori Carr responded they hoped to have the facility open “soon”, but that EHN Canada was providing virtual outpatient services to 30 clients in the meantime.
“Mr. Speaker, EHN Canada began providing intensive outpatient services on Oct. 29th as a temporary measure in the meantime until we get those inpatient beds up and running,” she said.
In speaking to reporters, Carr provided some explanation for what was behind the delay in opening the treatment centre.
“The facility that we're talking about is 60 inpatient beds,” said Carr. “There were some deficiencies with the building, and so we had to delay some of the inpatient beds. Right now, 30 of those are being used as outpatients, so we are providing some services until we've reached to opening those inpatient beds, hopefully in December.”
Part of the reason why this has erupted as an issue is because the NDP has called into question the government’s communications about the facility.
The Opposition has accused the government of “lying” about the number of treatment spaces currently available. Earlier this week, the province issued a news release which claimed there were 215 new treatment spaces offering services and had included in that number the 60 at the Willowview Recovery facility, even though those inpatient beds weren’t open yet. Those same numbers were also quoted during a members’ statement in the Legislature this week.
In response to those concerns Carr had this to say: “I would say that there are going to be 60 beds there. 30 of them are outpatient at this current point in time. Eventually, they will all be inpatient, and if that was said, then someone misspoke.”
Carr also confirmed that these 60 spaces were the only ones out of the 215 that have been temporarily delayed. She said they were “absolutely committed to getting them open.”
“But really, this is actually a good news story, the fact that we are actively working on getting care for people that need it, when they need it. The small delay is unfortunate, but they will be open. 500 beds total.”
According to the province’s news release, among those centres currently open are 15 spaces at Muskwa Lake, 15 inpatient treatment spaces and two withdrawal management spaces at Thorpe Recovery Centre near Lloydminster, 26 post-treatment spaces at St. Joseph's Addiction Recovery Centre in Estevan, 32 intensive outpatient treatment spaces at Possibilities Recovery Center in Saskatoon, 14 inpatient addictions treatment spaces at Poundmaker's Lodge in North Battleford, 15 withdrawal management spaces at Onion Lake, and 36 virtual spaces through EHN Canada.
In speaking to reporters following Question Period, Nippi-Albright made it known she felt the province hadn’t given a true picture of what had been happening in Lumsden.
“Well, this government has been talking about having these inpatient treatment beds open for months,” she said. “They've been saying to the public that this facility is open for inpatient treatment. They've been saying that to the public. And we find out there is no one in that building. There is no individual receiving inpatient treatment.”
Nippi-Albright also spoke some more about what the NDP had learned about the situation at Willowview Recovery at the moment.
“Our team has been out there speaking with the staff out there to find out how long has it been open, how many inpatient people have been there, how many people are in there for inpatient treatment. There's none. They said that there's been delays because of building maintenance, sprinklers and stuff like that.”
She added that “there are people dying out there, and there's only a small window of opportunity, a very tiny window, when somebody is ready to seek treatment. We need to act then, right away. There needs to be beds available. People that are waiting to get into treatment, when they are ready, we need to have beds available for them. And that's not the case. That hasn't been the case.”
