Saskatchewan’s Opposition N-D-P is raising questions over a contract the government signed with a private clinic in Calgary to offer mammograms.
The province is to pay Clearpoint Health Network two-million dollars to provide one-thousand mammograms until March 2025.
Public disclosure documents show the company’s subsidiary, Surgical Centres Inc., donated more than 14-thousand dollars to the governing Saskatchewan Party.
The province’s lobby registry says the company also hired former finance minister Kevin Doherty (DOHR’-tee) to lobby on its behalf.
Meara Conway, the N-D-P ethics critic, says she’s demanding a deeper explanation for the contract.
Clearpoint is charging the province 2-thousand dollars per scan, a price Conway says is more expensive than what other private clinics charge.
Health Minister Everett Hindley says the province chose the company because it already had a contract with it for hip and knee surgeries.
He says he was looking for an immediate solution for people to receive mammograms.
Hindley says donations and lobbying played no role in the government’s decision.