Sask. Health minister asks regulatory bodies to investigate controversial facility after CBC report
Saskatchewan’s health minister says his government has asked the organization that regulates doctors and the Treasury Department, which protects consumers, to investigate concerns raised. In a recent CBC investigation into a controversial health center in Moose Jaw.
He made the comments after being asked questions by the provincial NDP about that story in the legislature.
That facility, Dr. Goodenough Restorative Health Center, claims to have a 100 percent success rate in stopping and reversing the progression of ALS — a degenerative disease that causes gradual muscle loss. The center is run by Dayan Goodenow, who is not a medical doctor.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan, Deputy Health Minister Tracy Smith wrote, “The ministry is concerned about this individual and private business that appears to be engaging in the unauthorized practice of medicine.”
“The ministry is deeply concerned about the harm it may cause to patients and others in Saskatchewan,” Smith wrote.
As a result, the ministry wants the college to “take all appropriate steps, including initiating a formal investigation into the Centre.”
After which the government is demanding this action a cbc story About 70-year-old Susie Silvestri earlier this week. Last year, the American put her North Carolina home up for sale so she could participate in the center’s three-month live-in program, believing Goodenow’s supplements would enable her to walk again.
during his last stay His health deteriorated due to the fall. Eventually he was forced to flee the province in a rented ambulance with borrowed medical equipment so he could undergo life-saving surgery in the United States that his insurance company would not pay for in Canada.
Silvestri died alone in a Montana hospital on December 26, 2024, only four months after paying $84,000 USD to the Goodenough Center.
Susie’s situation is reminiscent of stories shared by other Goodenough customers. In a previous CBC story. Dayan Goodenow, the man who runs the feature, has questioned those reports and filed a lawsuit against CBC, claiming their program’s coverage is defamatory.
In an email to Goodenow and his company, CBC outlined the concerns raised A recent story about Susie Silvestri asked for further comment. In response, Goodenow’s law“No comment. We do not speak to people against whom we have active litigation,” he wrote.
CBC asked Goodenoway for comment for this story and he did not respond.
Minister wants review of consumer affairs
The Health Minister has asked Saskatchewan’s Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority to investigate concerns about the Goodenow Centre. It is a Treasury Crown corporation responsible for protecting consumers in the province.
“Given the fact that dollars have changed hands and the concern that the services being offered by this private business may not be accurate to the way they were presented to the customer, we will also direct the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority to take a look at this specific situation and this specific business,” Cockerill told media at the legislature on Monday.
He added that “There is a disclaimer at the bottom on the website of Mr. Goodenow’s business that talks about focusing on research and other services rather than treating and diagnosing health care issues.”
CBC reported that in its brochure promoting the program, Goodenow promises people with degenerative diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s “biochemical restoration” using the “systemic protocol” of Goodenow’s plasmalogen supplement.
The brochure also states that the Goodenow Center will develop “streamlined individualized treatment plans” and “an individualized post-treatment plan” for clients.
That generalized promise was applied specifically to Rebecca Bader, a client with ALS, when she and her husband Eric were watching the Goodenow program last year. In an email, a Goodenov sales representative said, “To start with plasmalogens, the process usually includes a consultation to assess his or her specific needs and design a treatment plan.”
In a question to Cockerill, CBC highlighted Goodenough’s treatment offering in its literature.
“That’s why … we’ve asked the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority to look into this,” Cockerill said. “It is important that the goods and services you provide to customers must be accurate and I think the FCAA has a role to play here and that is why we have instructed them to look at this.”
Gudenov is not a medical doctor
Cockerill is also asking the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan (CPSS) to look into concerns about the Goodenow Centre.
Private facilities are unregulated and operate outside the provincial health care system. It does not employ any medical professionals.
Dayan Goodenow holds a PhD in Medical Sciences with a focus on psychiatry from the University of Alberta. However, he is not a medical doctor and therefore not a member of the CPSS.
Health Minister Jeremy Cockerill wants the organization to investigate the Goodenough Centre.
Cockerill said, “(CBC’s) reporting has certainly brought more of the situation to light. Some questions need to be asked and again we will make a formal request to the CPSS and have further discussions with them.”
In the ministry’s letter to the college, it highlights the fact that a non-doctor is not allowed to:
- Treat any illness or disease with medicine, potions or any kind of treatment.
- Use a title that lets people know that the person is registered under the Act or is otherwise a practitioner.
- Use or advertise or represent yourself as “doctor.”
- Pretend to be a doctor.
Cockerill suggested that the College should look into whether Goodenough, as a non-doctor, was in breach of these or any other provisions of the Act.
“It is the position of the Government that the College of PhysicsSaskatchewan’s physicians and surgeons have the powers to meet any discipline required of this individual under the Medical Profession Act, Mr. Speaker,” Cockerill said in the legislature on Monday under a question from the provincial NDP. “We would encourage the college to do that.”
Who enforces the law?
CBC asked the college if it would do as the minister said but the organization has not yet responded.
In making this request, the province has embarked on what appears to be a controversial path.
Following CBC reporting earlier in the year, Cockerill also suggested at the time that the college was the correct entity to investigate concerns about the Goodenow Centre.
Earlier this year, the college said the province was misinformed.
Brian Salte, the college’s associate registrar and legal counsel, wrote on July 21, 2025, “I disagree that the College of Physicians and Surgeons is the designated agency to prosecute offenses that have been adopted by the Government of Saskatchewan into Saskatchewan law.”
“There is nothing in the Medical Profession Act, 1981 that supports that view.”
Salte said, in his view, the Act only empowers the college to regulate members, and not to investigate alleged crimes committed by non-doctors.
When CBC told the province about Salte’s comments, the government acknowledged there was some confusion on the matter and promised a review “to ensure there is clarity on who enforces the act.”
The province made this commitment on July 23.
During questioning on Monday, the minister admitted that there was still no clarity.
“I think we still have some work to do to sort this out with the College of Physicians and Surgeons,” Cockerill said.
Goodenough customer complains to college
In October 2024, Teresa Sandow and her husband Geoff left the Goodenow Center, believing that it had failed to deliver what they had promised. The American couple was trying to figure out where to complain.
They were in the Goodenow Center, just down the hall from Susie Silvestri.
Geoff has ALS and went to the facility because he was told in a sales call that, “We have a 100 percent success rate in stopping the progression of people with ALS and restoring their functioning.” But, he says that his condition continued to deteriorate during the program.
When Goodenow was asked about it during a CBC investigation earlier this year, he questioned that claim. “We document every person who comes into our center, OK? They leave that center better off than when they came in, OK? And that’s just a fact.”
Teresa reached out to the college’s attorney, Evan Thompson, to raise her concerns.
On November 7, 2024, he asked for more information, writing, “I’m hoping to write a memo for our executive committee that will need to be filed tomorrow morning, so I’ll be sure to include any information I have from you at that time.”
He wrote a nine-page summary and forwarded emails and audio files supporting his claims.
After a little more back and forth, the file was handed over to Brian Salte in February 2025 due to scheduling reasons.
“We have retained an attorney at a private law firm to bring an application for an injunction. An injunction is a court order that the individual not practice medicine,” he told Teresa in a February 13, 2025 email.
After this Salte asked for additional information.
“To obtain such an order, I think we need substantial evidence of harm caused to people by Mr. Goodenow’s conduct. The evidence you can provide, or that we can obtain through you, is likely to be very relevant,” Salte wrote.
‘Haunted’ by College
Teresa said she would gather more evidence from other former clients of Goodenow.
In her final email to the college, dated March 29, 2025, Teresa wrote, “I don’t know CPSS’s timeline on the Goodenow case, but you can call me if you need anything. We have had several patients and caregivers want to report their experience at (the Goodenow Center) at Moose Jaw.
“I believe we are now up to 11.”
At that point, the conversation ended, she said. He did not hear from Salte again.
Now that the province has called on the college to investigate, Teresa is once again wondering what happened.
“If there is a law, someone has been appointed to enforce it. How can it remain in limbo?” she wrote in a text to CBC.
“Why doesn’t the College of Physicians enforce this? They certainly showed interest in giving me hours of information about Goodenov and the center and then betrayed me.”
CBC asked the college what happened with the investigation into Teresa’s concerns. The answer to this has not come yet.
