Saskatoon's new urgent care centre breaks ground

Saskatoon's new urgent care centre breaks ground WATCH: A new healthcare facility is a step closer to opening in Saskatoon. Community leaders gathered to break ground Wednesday.

Premier Scott Moe was in Saskatoon alongside chiefs and ministers Wednesday to mark the beginning of construction on Saskatoon’s new urgent care centre.

“The urgent care centre will provide services for a number of different types of patients,” said health minister Everett Hindley. “Those that require perhaps a health service that can’t wait until tomorrow but is not of an urgent nature.”

The facility is a partnership between the province, Saskatchewan Health Authority, and Ahtahkakoop Cree Developments to repurpose the former Pleasant Hill School into a medical centre that hopes to alleviate pressure on hospital emergency departments.

“We’re taking it down to the bones inside,” said Jay Ahenakew Funk of Ahtahkakoop Cree Developments. “And we have partnerships that we’ve created.

We have a pharmacy going in, we’ve got our imaging teamed up with S.I.I.T. We’re doing a partnership on X-ray techs, we’re dealing with mental health and addictions.”

In Regina, the urgent care centre opened earlier this year in July 2024. Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Andrew Will says it’s making an immediate impact.

“On average, the Regina UCC is seeing about 110, 120 patients per day,” said Will. “Nearly nine thousand patients have been seen in that two and a half months, so a very significant impact.”

Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation Chief Larry Ahenakew and Premier Scott Moe agree that the mental health and addictions treatment component of the urgent care centre is equally as important as taking stress off hospital emergency departments.

“The urgent care centre is really important,” said Chief Ahenakew. “But mental health, addiction is just as important. Returning all our communities, addictions are affecting our First Nations also.”

Moe says the partnership with Ahtahkakoop Cree Developments benefits everyone.

“The partnership is significant because the beneficiary is everyone,” he said. “The beneficiary in this case will be not just the community of Saskatoon, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people that may reside here, but the surrounding area as well. Both on the physical health care side, but also on the access to mental health care and addictions.”

Construction begins this fall and is expected to be finished by spring 2026.