The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is being forced to spend over $100,000 to dispose of 559 pallets of expired hand sanitizer, which it had no intention of donating before the expiration date.
“We or our clients probably could have made use of these,” said Stephanie Taylor, executive director of Regina Transition House. “There have been a lot of donations from the community and different organizations of hand sanitizer, but we did have to resort to purchasing some at times.”
The pallets have been collecting dust in a Regina warehouse since earlier in the pandemic.
“Our clients didn’t necessarily have consistent access (to hand sanitizer) once they left the shelter,” Taylor said.
The SHA said it received huge volumes of the product at a time when sanitizer was scarce.
“It was not purchased. The sanitizer you refer to was supplied to us by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) as part of a large volume of medical supplies sent to each jurisdiction in Canada throughout the pandemic and particularly at the beginning of the pandemic when hand sanitizer was extremely hard to obtain,” said SHA representative James Winkle.
Global News asked the SHA if it considered donating extra shipments to organizations in need such as emergency shelters or community centres in the area before the expiration date, to which it responded it did not.
“No, the SHA did not donate the hand sanitizer to anyone,” the SHA said in a statement.
“While the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) very much appreciated the PHAC shipment, the SHA was able to source a more effective sanitizer supply in the interests of patient and public safety.”
While the SHA was using this supply for its own operations, the unused pallets of hand sanitizer were left in the warehouse to expire. The SHA now has to begin a bidding process to dispose of the hazardous substance, which will cost the organization over $100,000.
“What a waste of funds that could have been used for other programs,” said Amanda Benesh, development coordinator at Carmichael Outreach Inc. “I’d like to know the actual cost waste on that much sanitizer. How much of the Saskatchewan’s taxpayer’s money was wasted?
“There should always be some sort of repercussions for wasted taxpayers’ money, but unfortunately, it will probably just be a tongue wagging to whoever approved it.”