Longtime health region chair Boutilier resigns

It was a long ride, but now the chair of the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region has hung up his hat.

Lloyd Boutilier resigned his position after 14 years of service. It included two years on the Regina District Health Board and the past seven years as chair.

“It’s takes a lot of time and I’m very busy and this will give me a little more time to spend on other things,” he said.

Originally, he thought his term would last between four or five years.

In a news release, provincial Health Minister Dustin Duncan thanked Boutilier for his service.

“His many year of leadership show a commitment to the people of the health region and to ensuring they benefit from quality of health services,” he said in the release.

Boutilier stepped down at the end of February, at which time Brian Barber, the vice-chair, stepped into the role.

“Basically, what I wanted to do was give the (health) minister a little bit more (notice) that I wasn’t going to re-offer and give him the opportunity to appoint a new chair,” he said.

Boutilier said the time has come for him to step down because he did what he was initially hired to accomplish. He was appointed to the board because of his financial background.

“At that time, the Regina Health Authority was experiencing significant deficit and were looking at continuing on that track for a number of years,” said Boutilier. “I was asked to sit on the board and work with their financial officers to come up with a plan along with the board to overcome those deficits.”

He said with hard work the board was able to turn things around. After that hurdle was cleared, Boutilier and the board set their sights on another goal.

Although the board did not lose sight of its financial situation, it turned its attention to the people and patient safety.

Boutilier is happy with where the board is going and is happy to hand the reins over to another.

“We hired a new CEO a little over two years ago and I wanted to stay around a couple years to make sure the transition was easier for the CEO,” he said. “I’m leaving at a really good time. We have done a lot to improve surgical wait times, hugely better for waiting for surgery. Budgets will always be a problem, that’s never going to change, and we (hired a) great CEO (with) a good team working for him.”