The Saskatchewan Ministry of Health denied a journalist’s request for 261 pages of Lloydminster’s health assessment on the same day the government issued a public summary of its findings.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Health withheld all 261 pages of Lloydminster’s health needs assessment from public access on June 25, citing four exemptions under provincial freedom of information law.
The government issued a press release summarizing the same document the same day.
BorderPulse filed an access to information request on May 29, 2026, seeking the complete, unredacted Lloydminster Health Service Needs Assessment as originally submitted by Cornerstone Planning Group. The request described the document as including “all findings, recommendations and appendices as originally delivered by the contractor.”
In a letter dated June 25 and signed by Lisa Dietrich, Director of Health Information and Privacy and Chief Privacy Officer for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, the ministry refused.
“Please note that 261 pages of records responsive to your request have been withheld in full pursuant to sections 18(1)(d), 18(1)(e), 19(1)(b), and 19(c)(iii) of the Act,” Dietrich wrote.
The four sections cover distinct legal grounds for withholding records.
Section 18(1)(d) allows the government to refuse access to information whose disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the competitive position of a government institution. Section 18(1)(e) covers information whose disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with negotiations carried on by the government.
Section 19(1)(b) requires the government to refuse access to records containing financial, commercial, scientific, technical or labour relations information supplied in confidence by a third party. Section 19(c)(iii) requires refusal where disclosure could reasonably be expected to result in similar information no longer being supplied to the government.
The ministry applied all four to every one of the 261 pages. It explained none of them.
The denial letter offered no explanation of which exemption applied to which portion of the 261 withheld pages, or why any exemption had been properly engaged.
BorderPulse received the denial letter hours after the Government of Saskatchewan distributed a public press release. Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill and Alberta Primary and Preventive Health Services Minister Justin Wright both made on-record statements characterizing the report’s contents. Two provincial ministers described publicly what the ministry had just told a journalist was too sensitive to release.
The assessment was commissioned jointly by the governments of Saskatchewan and Alberta and produced by Cornerstone Planning Group and AnalysisWorks. The contract value was $262,260. The document covers 13 service areas across Lloydminster’s bi-provincial medical system and draws on more than 35 clinical, operational and administrative engagement sessions with residents, health care workers and administrators.
Residents participated in those sessions. They were not permitted to see what came out of them.
This publication filed a formal appeal with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner on June 26, challenging the denial on five grounds. Among them: the ministry provided no rationale linking specific exemptions to specific records; the document was produced by a private contractor and not by government officials, making section 18 exemptions inapplicable; and the government issued a public summary of the same document it claimed was too sensitive to disclose in full.
The appeal also cites a 2013 precedent. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Health released a substantially equivalent health needs assessment for Lloydminster in full that year, without exemption. No explanation has been offered for the inconsistency.
The denial letter directed BorderPulse to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner with any further concerns.
It was filed the next day.
We have contacted the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health for comment. No response was received before publication. This story will be updated if a response is provided.
This is the first in a multi-part investigative series revealing what they don’t want us to know about the Lloydminster Health Needs Assessment.
Read more: Provinces dodge healthcare accountability in Lloydminster
