REGINA - Concerns were raised at the Legislature about a Saskatoon care home after a resident froze to death outside.
The NDP’s critic for Seniors Keith Jorgenson brought up the case of 96-year old William Hastie, who died outside the Northern Lights Care Home where he had been residing. The cause of death, they said, was cardiac arrest after extreme hypothermia.
Jorgenson was joined at a news conference by Hastie’s granddaughters Ashley Benson Bonneville and Amber Benson. They’re the granddaughters of Mr. William Hastie, who tragically passed away earlier this year in Saskatoon.
“His death was 100 per cent preventable,” Jorgenson told a news conference Wednesday.
“William was not adequately supervised overnight. Required door alarms were not functioning. The facility in question had not been inspected in almost three and a half years. Three and a half years. And this was despite it being cited for numerous serious safety violations and the MLA for Eastview, Matt Love, sending a letter to the minister expressing concerns about this exact facility. The government has not been doing assessments of patients in personal care homes as required by law. This is an incredibly important step because that allows us to know that that facility is capable of caring for the people that reside in it.”
Jorgenson blamed Sask Parry cuts for the whole situation.
“This should never, ever have happened. No one should die like this. No one and no family should ever have to experience this kind of loss. And with the government's decision to cut healthcare further in their most recent budget, we know that things will only get worse.”
Ashley told reporters her grandfather had been found frozen outside, and that the care home “waited over an hour to call 911.
“I think working in the care field myself, you know, we have pretty strict policy and procedures that we have to follow. We have adequate staffing. We have health inspection, fire inspection to make sure that people are taken care of. We have proper trainings put in place. And I think my hope would be that these would be put in place kind of across the board. So everyone is safe and cared for.”
According to the personal care homes inspection reports on the Government of Saskatchewan website, the last inspection listed for Northern Lights Care Home prior to this incident had been in July, 2021. That 2021 report listed eight incidences of the home not being in compliance. Government officials said another inspection took place after the incident, in March 2025.
Jorgenson particularly pointed to that three-and-a-half year gap between inspections.
“Yeah, the inspections of these facilities are online. Anyone can view them. The website's a bit tricky to find, but just from publicly available data, you know, this facility was about, I don't remember the exact time, but around three and a half years between intervals, which is clearly not within what the regulations require. As well as William's needs weren't assessed as is required by law prior to him entering a personal care home. And, again, that's a critical step to know whether or not the personal care home can care for him. And both of those things weren't done as is required by law and regulation.”
He said his concern was with “the whole system, because in the end, the government regulates and licenses these facilities. So if you go to a facility that is regulated and licensed, you as a member of the public are going to assume that it meets minimum standards. And the public – and we can't possibly know whether or not facilities meet minimum standards when nobody ever inspects them. When we went through that data in November, I think that was about – the average three-and-a-half years was very typical. This was not an outlier at all.”
This was also not the first incident involving Northern Lights Care Home. The NDP also pointed to the death of 91-year old Erwin Lukan, who died after an infection. His family had also been at the Legislature advocating for change earlier this session.
Minister for Rural and Remote Health Lori Carr spoke to reporters Tuesday following Question Period. She said that as soon as the Ministry heard about Hastie’s case there was an investigation launched.
“The first serious incident report was asked for. It has also been referred to the Coroner's Office. They're looking into this at the same time, and we're just awaiting the results of all of that.”
Carr was also asked about why there was a four-year license inspection gap on the care home.
“The records that I have don't actually show a four-year lapse, so there's a little bit of a discrepancy there, Carr said. “And I'd have to look at the exact dates, but not a four-year lapse.”
Carr did say an inspection was done after the incident but it didn’t get logged into the public site. “So the remedy was happened, took place, and then from there, the regular inspection took place. So it looks like there was a longer lapse than there actually was.”
Carr said all was current as of March 31 and that all care homes in the province have been inspected.
