Sakasteew Transportation is an Aboriginally owned company located in the growing Fort McKay First Nation.
They provide ground personnel transportation services for industrial workers and VIPs, CNRL, Suncor, Fort Hills, Airport Shuttles, Camp Shuttles, Community Shuttles to different plant sites, Site Shuttle Services, Special Tours, and many other local and outside customers.
The company’s name “Sakasteew” means “Morning Sunrise…A New Beginning” in Cree.
On May 18, 2017 Sakasteew Transportation helped created a new beginning for the Northern Lights Health Foundation’s Gratitude Campaign with their donation in the amount of $50,000.
These funds will be dedicated to the Minimally Invasive Surgical Suite (MIS) project.
The MIS project is a state of the art upgrade to four surgical suites at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre and will provide the following:
- significant improvement to patient recovery times and outcomes
- less time under anesthesia
- quicker recovery
- shorter hospital stays
- less pain
- better cosmetic results
- fewer complications.
Benefits of the suite upgrades also include giving surgeons more control over the surgical space, quicker procedure and turnover times, the ability to consult and train other physicians on site and increased patient, physician, and nurse safety.
Currently, the Health Centre is the only regional hospital in Alberta that does not have this technology.
This is another reason why AHS has trouble recruiting doctors to the community, most of them are now trained on the newer technology that we do not yet have.
Marie Boucher, long time resident of Fort McKay and founder and owner of Sakasteew Transportation, is known for her generosity, her mothering heart, and she is dedicated to the health and wellbeing of her family, her community and her customers.
It is this strong belief in helping others that moved Marie to get involved in the campaign.
Boucher’s daughter and grandchildren were born at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre and her mother, family and friends have stayed on the Continuing Care floor where she says they were very well taken care of.
She believes in the importance of supporting the Health Foundations’ Gratitude Campaign so that her community and all people in the region can continue to receive the care they need close to home.
