Thursday, November 16, 2023
VOLUME 6 I ISSUE 21
MERIDIANSOURCE.CA
Royal Canadian Legion Branch #39 Lloydminster Sgt. at Arms, Rick Mallett, helps direct traffic at Lloydminster Comprehensive High School during Saturday morning’s Remembrance Day ceremony. See more on Page 14. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
Seniors to push for Jubilee rebuild GEOFF LEE STAFF WRITER
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It may take a targeted advocacy plan to convince the Saskatchewan government to put the replacement of the existing 50-bed Jubilee Home on the front burner. That’s what the Lloydminster Concerned Citizens for Seniors Care Society learned from operations reps from Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and Alberta Health Services (AHS) who met to support the need for
more long-term care spaces in Lloyd on Nov. 7. Neal Sylvestre, executive director of continuing care northwest SHA, talked about the power of community support to get the health ministry to green-light capital projects like Jubilee Home in the province. “The ministry looks at all those top priorities and they do risk analysis etc. to determine where we need to put our money,” said Sylvestre. He says his boss, Andrew
McLetchie, vice-president of Integrated Northern Health, talks about the importance of advocating for political leaders to get their support in terms of setting priorities. Sylvestre says once that happens, SaskBuilds works with the community on location etc. “The biggest hurdle for this group is to get that green light from the ministry for them to understand this needs to be a top priority in the province,” he said.
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The meeting focused on it being Saskatchewan’s turn to build additional spaces in Lloyd over the 148 spaces AHS and SHA have identified as the number needed in the whole region by 2035. Brown looked for confirmation that any planning for new spaces will not be put on hold until a new communityintegrated health services and facility infrastructure needs assessment is completed in the coming months by Saskatchewan and Alberta
health ministries. According to Deborah Okrainetz with AHS, there has been no change in the demand or forecast for spaces by her ministry in our geographic area. She’s the director of continuing care NE Central Zone covering the Lloydminster region. “We have not had any grants that have been announced by AHS for new capacity builds,” said Okrainetz. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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