The President of the Adventist Church in Saskatchewan in 1964 was
A.W. (Tony) Kaytor. He was strongly convinced that if the church was to
fulfill its mission to the community it must provide for their physical as
well as their spiritual needs. The executive committee of the church agreed
with him. The Seventh-day Adventist Church had established a long standing
tradition of health care service, and two hospitals were located in Canada.
One in Willowdale, Ontario and the other in Sydney, B.C.

The church approached the Ministry of Health and were told that under the
prevailing Canadian medicare system the construction of new private hospitals
was not permitted, however the Ministry of Health suggested that they consider
the nursing home field. The executive committee of the church embraced this
suggestion and proposed the construction of a 66 bed facility.

Pool Construction of Saskatoon was selected as the contractor and they
commenced the construction of the facility in May 1964. Stock Keith and
Associates were the architects for the project. Construction was completed in
late 1964 and the building was officially opened by Saskatoon Mayor, E.J. Cole,
in February 1965. The facility was already in operation at that time having
admitted it's first resident in January of that year. An additional wing was added
a few years later bringing the total bed capacity to 106. In 2003 some rooms
were converted to Palliative Care and a few other modifications were made,
bringing the bed count to 97.

Sunnyside was selected as the name for the new facility to project a sense of
warmth and friendliness. Additionally, the name of Sunnyside Nursing Home was
officially changed to Sunnyside Adventist Care Centre in the fall of 2002.