Until recently, the committee for a new Estevan Regional Nursing Home has had to raise funds and do planning largely on their own, as support from the province has been delayed by other projects. In today's budget announcement from the provincial government, however, they found out they were getting some money to help get them on track. 

Part of the budget announcement was the allocation of $1.1 million for new long-term care facilities for Watson, Regina, and Estevan. The money will be divided up between the three projects, with Estevan seeing about $275,000 for the project. 

"We're well aware that there are dozens and dozens of communities interested in replacing their nursing homes," said St. Joseph's Hospital Executive Director Greg Hoffort. "To be one of the three revealed in this year's budget is quite an accomplishment for the local hearthstone committee."

The Estevan Regional Nursing Home Committee has already done a great deal of work on its own, including raising $8 million in funding on its own. The need for a new regional nursing home was driven home by a report approved by the committee in 2018. 

"This is the season of hallelujahs and this is one of them," said Don Kindopp, chair of the ERNHC. "We've worked with the government and we've worked with MLA (Lori) Carr and the citizens of the community have come forward with their letters and they're speaking to government and our RM partners have been supportive of us."

This money will be given toward the planning of the new nursing home, which had not yet officially begun on the province's end. With that first major hurdle out of the way, work on a new nursing home can begin in earnest. 

"What the nursing home committee has done is plan to move the project forward in terms of getting the government to commit to this project or to look at some creative, innovative way of getting the project done," Kindopp said. "It needs assessment and to do the demographic work necessary to determine what the need here in Estevan to replace the nursing home is at."

Hoffort added this money solidified the project and made it official as they wouldn't be making planning money of this significance available if they weren't confident the project was going to happen.