The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released freedom of information (FOI) documents obtained from the Saskatoon Health Region today showing three of its government-run cafeterias have lost $1.2 million over the past two years selling food to customers.

The health region did not have data for its seven rural hospitals and data was not available from the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region.

“Taxpayers expect to subsidize things like open heart surgery in these hospitals, not the burger and fries down in the cafeteria,” said CTF Prairie Director Colin Craig. “If just three hospitals are losing $600,000 a year, imagine what the losses could be province-wide?”

To address the problem, the CTF is encouraging the provincial government to explore partnerships with private sector restaurants.

“Who knows, perhaps the province could actually make a bit of money by renting out the space to a private business instead of losing money,” added Craig.

However, the CTF is cautioning against the health region simply operating a private restaurant using unionized health workers. Normally profitable Tim Horton’s franchises have been turned into money losers in hospitals in Windsor and St. John’s due to unaffordable wage and benefit structures.

To view the Freedom of Information response, click here.