YORKTON — Recently NDP MLAs Jared Clarke and Aleana Young were in Yorkton to pledge their party’s support for a new regional hospital for the city.
It was on the sidewalk in front of the Yorkton Regional Hospital Clarke, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Minister for Rural & Remote Health made the announcement the party would build the new hospital in Yorkton if the party forms government in an expected election in 2028.
The duo of NDP MLAs was back on the same sidewalk Oct. 27, lamenting that the Saskatchewan Party did not mention a new hospital for Yorkton in the government’s recent Throne Speech.
The oversight was “deeply disappointing, said Clarke, who noted the Sask. Party has said a new hospital is coming but has yet to announce a start date, exact location, or exact cost to the city.
“The people of Yorkton were left out.”
Clarke went on to suggest the oversight is a continuance of a long-standing record of no new facility for the city.
“For 18 years, the Sask. Party has promised to replace the Yorkton Regional Health Centre,” Clarke said. “They’ve said it’s on the way and that planning is underway. But here we are, nearly two decades later, and still no shovel in the ground. . .
“There was nothing about a new hospital for Yorkton in the Throne Speech.”
Clarke then reiterated the party promise from the earlier visit that the NDP will build a hospital if elected adding they will also offer support for associated infrastructure to make a new hospital a success including housing and upgrades to the needed municipal infrastructure, like the wastewater treatment plant.
Young, NDP Shadow Minister for Jobs and the Economy then took the podium to again suggest the hospital is ultimately about more than health care, saying the facility would be a foundational element to spurring regional economic growth.
