Will Work with City to Ensure Housing for Healthcare Workers, Childcare and Infrastructure to Ensure New Hospital is a Success
YORKTON – The Saskatchewan NDP will finally build the new hospital in Yorkton that the Sask. Party has promised but failed to build for the past 18 years, and the infrastructure to make it a success, if elected in 2028.
The Yorkton Regional Health Centre, built in 1962, can no longer keep up with the region’s healthcare demands. The hospital services a large area across east central Saskatchewan and western Manitoba, providing maternity services, cancer care, diagnostic services and dialysis.
Community and healthcare leaders have told the Saskatchewan NDP that the emergency room is too small, acute care rooms are overcrowded, and there aren’t enough pediatric, cancer or mental health spaces.
The maternity ward does not have hot water. The hospital’s HVAC system, laboratories and ambulance entrance also need major work. Patients don’t have access to internet. Cancer and dialysis patients are charged for parking.
“The Sask. Party has represented Yorkton for over 18 years with nothing to show for it,” said Jared Clarke, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Minister for Rural & Remote Health. “This government has been talking about a hospital, studying it and making excuses for 18 years. It’s time to deliver what Yorkton needs and deserves.”
Formal discussion about replacing the hospital began in 2011 with conceptual plans presented to the public in 2012. The Sask. Party made the community fundraise for a six-figure feasibility study, and then shelved it. Thirteen years later, the Minister of Health told media the project is still in the ‘scoping portion’ but made no commitment to begin construction. In July 2025, the government announced $1 million to develop a business case – another in a long series of delays.
“For 18 years the Sask. Party has made excuses while Yorkton families and valiant frontline workers have been left to make do in a hospital that's not meeting the needs of the region,” Clarke said.
“We’re ready to build — not just a hospital, but the necessary infrastructure to staff it. It will have housing and upgrades to the needed municipal infrastructure, like the wastewater treatment plant.”
“Yorkton is a city on the cusp,” said Aleana Young, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Minister for Jobs and the Economy.
“We want to work in real collaboration with local leaders and citizens to get it right. That’s what the Sask. Party should be doing. Instead, all this government can show for 18 years in office are broken election year promises.”
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