The Saskatchewan government quietly provided an additional $800,000 in funding to the Lumsden Treatment Centre over the summer, despite the facility remaining non-operational, newly obtained government emails reveal.
The funding, which was not publicly disclosed, brings taxpayers' known contributions to the privately owned addiction treatment centre to at least $1.5 million in startup costs alone. The Saskatchewan Party government has redacted the total cost of the project.
"The Sask. Party has had no problem handing this centre blank cheques while wait times grow and this addictions crisis gets worse and worse,” said NDP mental health and addictions critic Betty Nippi-Albright. “Where is this money going? Saskatchewan families deserve answers.”
The Lumsden Treatment Centre was originally announced as a key part of the province’s plan to address addiction, but delays have persisted, and it has yet to become fully operational.
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Government transparency on the centre came under scrutiny in recent months after Saskatchewan Party cabinet minister Lori Carr incorrectly stated that the facility was open and accepting inpatients.
Former admissions coordinator Mandy Challis, who has since come forward as a whistleblower, alleged that the centre received funding for staff despite having no clients.
“This facility has had a year of money being put into staffing with no clients, when there are [local] organizations begging for donations,” Challis said in January.
Nippi-Albright said the government has failed to take the addictions crisis seriously.
“The Sask. Party has been in power for 17 years. They let this issue get out of hand because they just aren't focused on the future,” she said.
The Saskatchewan NDP is calling on the government to disclose the full cost of the Lumsden Treatment Centre and provide a detailed breakdown of where the funding has gone, how many patients have been treated, and the challenges delaying operations.
“We have people dying every day of addiction in this province and a government wasting money that could be devoted to saving lives,” Nippi-Albright said. “It’s time we get serious about a plan to protect our communities from the harmful effects of drugs, now and into the future.”
