Sask. family of senior father who died in care home advocating for change

WATCH: A family whose father died in 2023 days after he moved into a seniors care home is calling out the province for not meeting a proper standard of care.

The family of a senior who died just days after moving into a care home joined MLAs at the legislature on Wednesday to seek answers and advocate for change.

Erwin Lukan, who was 91, moved into a Saskatoon care home with his wife on July 17, 2023, and died on Aug. 6, 2023.

“We trusted the system,” Lukan’s daughter Donna told reporters on Wednesday. “Our dad was a strong, hard working, ethical man who deserved more.”

Lukan developed a UTI shortly after moving into the facility and according to his family, staff did not know about his condition. As well, the facility’s only certified caretaker for catheters was out of province, so there was no one to assist with its maintenance for over 10 days.

Lukan’s family believes he developed an infection which led to his hospitalization and death.

“We ended up losing our dad after he received poor health care in this home, he ended up in the hospital on his last day with an infection, and his body just shut down. We had a lot of concerns to list today. We could be here for many hours. We tried to bring this forward, but no one wanted to listen to us,” Donna explained.

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“The home they resided in had numerous infractions, yet the government did not hold this home accountable. We never knew there were infractions and complaints in the past of this home.”

Following months of family complaints, the NDP said a provincial investigation confirmed issues with personal care, food, bathing schedules, and record keeping at the facility.

During legislative assembly, NDP MLA Keith Jorgenson welcomed Lukan’s daughters and addressed the oversight they believe contributed to Lukan’s death.

“This personal care home had shockingly not been inspected over three years by this government,” Jorgenson said. “How many more seniors need to die unnecessarily before this government will address the needs of seniors’ care?”

Minister of Seniors Lori Carr said the government takes long term care seriously and wants to make sure what happened to Lukan doesn’t happen in the future.

“We are concerned when incidents happen in our facilities and we take every effort we can to try and address any shortcomings there may be,” she said.

“We will continue to do those surveys of the long-term care facilities that we have.”

Jorgenson said if the government took long term care seriously, they would have made sure there was not a such a long gap since the last inspection.

“Mr. Lukans’ family placed their faith in the government that that home would be inspected. Little did they know that this home had not been inspected in years. Also, Mr. Lukans’ needs were never properly assessed by this government prior to his placement in that home, as is required by provincial legislation,” he said.

NDP MLA Matt Love echoed Jorgenson’s comments, saying the oversight in care never should have happened.

“Our seniors deserve safety, they deserve respect, and they deserve dignity, and their families deserve to know that they are being well cared for when they’re placed in a home,” he said.

Love said despite Lukans’ family members sending letters and advocating for their father’s death, as well as his letter to the minister, the personal care home was still not inspected.

According to government records referenced by the NDP, the care home was inspected on March 5, 2025, with the last inspection taking place on July 26, 2021.

Carr said she was able to have a productive meeting with the family on Wednesday afternoon.

“I had the opportunity to hear their story and their journey that they went on, and it’s absolutely something that we’re going to be looking into previously numerous violations for,” she said.

In terms of the gap in inspections, Carr said there was a standard in place that requires the province to inspect personal care homes on an annual basis.

“If they’re in good standing, it can go to a two-year cycle, and that is our goal,” she said, noting that she’ll have to look into why this care home did not get the annual inspection.

Carr also pointed to the recent provincial budget, which would ensure there are safe long term care facilities in the province.

“We’re adding more assessors and inspectors, so we know that that’s something that we want to keep on top of,” she said.