The Victoria Hospital expansion has passed one million worker hours, a construction milestone provincial officials say reflects the size of the project, while the NDP argued the government doesn’t have a plan to staff the expanded hospital when it opens.
Provincial officials, Saskatchewan Health Authority representatives and PCL Construction marked the milestone Wednesday at the hospital site in Prince Albert. PCL also organized a lunch for workers involved in the project.
Prince Albert Carlton MLA Kevin Kasun said the milestone shows the scale and complexity of the expansion, which he described as the largest health care infrastructure project currently underway in Saskatchewan based on dollars invested.
“This milestone marks the scale and complexity of this project and the effort required to deliver the largest Saskatchewan healthcare infrastructure project currently underway,” Kasun said.
Sean Wilson, Minister of SaskBuilds and Procurement, said the one million worker hours represent months of planning, coordination and labour from tradespeople, project managers, engineers, designers, safety teams, contractors and support staff.
“Reaching 1 million worker hours is no small feat,” Wilson said. “It represents months upon months of planning, coordination, and hard work on this large scale health infrastructure project.”
Wilson said the milestone is not just a number, but a sign of the work being put into a facility meant to serve Prince Albert and northern Saskatchewan for years to come.
PCL construction manager Grant Selinger said the milestone belongs to the workers on site. He said crews have worked long hours, weekends and time away from their families since foundation work began in July 2024.
Shawn Phaneuf, executive director of acute care northeast with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said the expansion will bring more modern care closer to home for patients in Prince Albert, northern Saskatchewan and central Saskatchewan.
“This means reduced need to travel long distances to access care, shorter wait times, and overall improve patient outcomes and experience,” Phaneuf said.
Wilson was also asked about staffing concerns during his scrum. He said SaskBuilds and Procurement is responsible for construction, while staffing questions are better directed to the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Ministry of Health.
After the formal program, Phaneuf said staffing work for the expanded hospital has been underway for years. He said SHA has worked with the Ministry of Health, workforce planning teams, employment strategy staff and other partners on a phased hiring plan.
Phaneuf said the full operating model for the expanded hospital includes more than 500 full-time equivalent positions in addition to existing staff. He said early hiring has already started.
He also said planning includes enhanced training seats for high-demand positions and an Indigenous and northern training, recruitment and retention strategy.
However, when asked whether SHA could guarantee the expanded hospital would not draw workers from other hospitals or northern communities already dealing with shortages, Phaneuf said he could not make that guarantee.
“I can’t answer that question,” he said. “I’m not sure where we’re going to draw them from, so I can’t guarantee that they’re not going to come from us.”
The Saskatchewan NDP held a press conference to outline their staffing concerns one day before the government event. During a Tuesday press conference, the opposition said the province has not provided clear answers on how many workers will be needed, how many have been recruited and how many positions remain vacant.
In a follow-up interview Wednesday, Keith Jorgenson, MLA for Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood and the NDP associate shadow minister for health, said the opposition supports the Victoria Hospital expansion, but wants more detail on staffing and safety.
“Of course, we support the expansion of that hospital,” Jorgenson said. “This is a critical hospital that provides services to a huge section of Northern Saskatchewan.”
Jorgenson said the construction milestone does not answer the larger question facing the project.
“I think what the government needs to show us is a plan to staff this facility once it’s open and to keep the patients and the staff in it safe,” he said.
He said the figure of more than 500 additional full-time equivalent positions will only matter if the province can fill those jobs.
“If those positions can be staffed, of course, that’s going to be great,” Jorgenson said. “But when we already have a whole bunch of unfilled positions that have been sitting vacant for years, in some cases, creating a new position that is just going to sit vacant doesn’t benefit the people of the North.”
Jorgenson said the province should release clearer information about vacancies, overcapacity, service disruptions and closures. He said retention should be the first priority, including listening to health care workers and paying them fairly.
He said people who support the hospital expansion still have reason to be concerned about whether the health system will have enough workers to run it when the project is complete.
The Victoria Hospital expansion is expected to be completed in 2028
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
