After 120 years as Nova Scotia’s only Catholic hospital, St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish will no longer carry its distinctive faith-based identity post-Sept. 30. 

That's the day the long-standing Mission Assurance Agreement between the Sisters of St. Martha and the provincial government is set to expire. 

The official decision was announced by Nova Scotia’s health and wellness minister, Michelle Thompson, on March 6. One day later, Antigonish Bishop Wayne Kirkpatrick expressed his deep concern about the decision in an open letter to the faithful, highlighting the hospital’s legacy of more than a century of Gospel-inspired care rooted in compassion, dignity and respect for life at every stage. 

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Beyond the headlines showing that the 30-year partnership has run its course is a deeper decision that is troubling many East Coast Catholics. Despite requesting the continuation of the mission agreement through another Catholic sponsor identified by the Sisters, the government and Nova Scotia Health have decided to move forward without a sponsor. 

Sr. Brendalee Boisvert, the Sisters of St. Martha’s congregation leader, is still puzzled by the motives behind the decision. 

“ We do have a very good relationship with the government, and it is in our contract that we can find a sponsor, so it was not unusual that we would have looked for one. We introduced them to Catholic Health International, who we believed would be upholding the Sisters of St. Martha values, but the only thing I have is what they have said in their statement, that their relationship with us has a rich history, but they don't feel that they want to seek another sponsor,” she told The Catholic Register. 

Indeed, while no concrete reason was provided to the Sisters, a line from Thompson's official statement hints at the reason behind the decision. 

“When the current agreement concludes, the services and policies at St. Martha’s will more closely align with all other hospitals across Nova Scotia,” it reads. 

Founded by the Sisters of St. Martha in 1906, St. Martha’s Regional Hospital has served as both a landmark for the local community and a beacon of Catholic health care. St. Martha’s was run by the Sisters directly from its inception until 1996, when a decline in Sisters with nursing and administration roles saw the hospital sold to the Nova Scotia government.

Even after the sale, the Antigonish community approached the Sisters with the hopes they would continue overseeing the mission to keep the health-care institution uniquely Catholic. Inspired by a similar model used by Newfoundland’s Sisters of Mercy, they created the Mission Assurance Agreement, a partnership between the Sisters, the hospital, health authorities and the Minister of Health. For the past three decades, that partnership has ensured the Catholic values that built the hospital persist. 

As Boisvert noted, unlike typical hospital mission statements that are often simply sculpted onto its walls or plastered on a website homepage, the Sisters’ was actively lived. 

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“The  difference was that every month we would talk about the mission, how we're living it and how we can do it better. I don’t think  the government has any idea what the loss will be when you lose that kind of focused attention,” she said. 

That focused attention is in the hospital’s core values: staff being a healing presence, accepting patients regardless of background, kindness, compassion, dignity, stewardship, justice and hospitality. 

It was at the 2024 General Chapter that the Sisters discerned their current priorities, choosing to focus their efforts on fewer ministries as numbers declined, especially throughout the health-care sector. Boisvert said the general feeling was simply “that it was time" to hand off the hospital sponsorship, a decision that soon saw lengthy processes of discernment and peer review by the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada, with a goal of ensuring a smooth transfer before a hopeful renewal with New Brunswick’s experienced Catholic Health International. 

The department and Nova Scotia Health did not take to the suggestion, with Boisvert’s biggest disappointment coming from successful precedents set by other institutions and the overall positive groundwork laid in preparation for their pitch. 

The Sisters are not alone in their disappointment, as Kirkpatrick underscored the importance of Catholic health care in totality amidst his support for the Sisters. It’s a personal blow for Fr. John Barry, a senior priest of the Antigonish diocese, whose mother was a graduate of Saint Martha School of Nursing herself. It’s something he reflected on after writing to the Sisters to thank them for their decades of faithful service and witness.

“We are all conscious of the underlying reasons for this refusal and know these undermine the very essential reasons for our basic existence. Above all, the sanctity of human life from its very inception, ongoing care and provision to its natural end. St. Martha Hospital has constantly and consistently, from its very beginning, upheld and promoted these principles,” a portion of his letter read.

Boisvert is choosing to focus on the pride she holds towards both the hospital's legacy and the Sisters as community leaders. 

“ I said to the government, I want to celebrate. I don't want this to be a war between them and us. I also don't want the members of our congregation to feel in any way that if we had held on longer, it might have continued, because it was time for us. I don't want them to carry that, and I don’t think they will,” she said. 

“Health care is changing. This is the only Catholic hospital in Nova Scotia, and so it will be a great loss. People have come to St. Martha's knowing they will receive good care and be treated with respect, and I can say that the last 30 years, we really tried to keep those values of good care with respect alive.” 

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Boisvert remains optimistic that the mission's DNA will endure through years of orientation, education, and formation of staff who will remain. 

“ I had said the mission lives on in those bricks, but it is more than the bricks; It lives on in the people,” she said. “I think it will live on for a good while.”