BC Launches Health Authority Review to Identify ‘Unnecessary’ Spending

B.C. Minister of Health Josie Osborne speaks during a news conference in Burnaby, B.C., on June 10, 2024. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

The British Columbia government has launched a review of its provincial health authority, saying it aims to ensure resources are used efficiently while reducing “unnecessary” administrative spending.

The move is part of a broader plan to assess all health authorities in the province, the government said in a March 31 press release. The Provincial Health Services Authority was chosen as the first entity to undergo review because of its province-wide service scope, officials said.

“The Province is launching its health authority review to ensure resource allocations are supporting critical patient services and minimize unnecessary administrative spending,” reads the release.

B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said the government is “committed to ensuring health authorities are functioning as effectively and efficiently as possible.”

Earlier this year, the province announced plans to review all government programs to reduce spending in the face of U.S. tariff threats. In its 2025 budget, it estimated that a 25 percent blanket tariff on Canadian goods, reduced to 10 percent on energy products, would cut provincial revenue by up to $3.4 billion annually.

Tabled in early March, the budget projects that the province’s proposed cost-cutting measures, including a pause on public service hiring, will save about $300 million this fiscal year, with savings expected to double in each of the next two years.

“The Province is reviewing all existing programs to ensure they remain relevant, efficient, that they are helping people with costs, and working to grow the economy,” reads the province’s 2025 budget, which projected a $10.9 billion deficit.

The province’s budget allocated $4.2 billion over three years to increase capacity in the health system and an additional $15.5 billion in capital investments for new health facilities over the same period.

The review by health authorities also comes amid a series of emergency room closures that have spread from rural communities to parts of the Lower Mainland, which B.C.’s opposition Conservatives have called an indication of the state of the province’s health care.

“Can you imagine having your child, your ailing child, in the back of your car and having to drive 10 hours to access an emergency room department,” Trevor Halford, Conservative MLA for Surrey—White Rock, said during question period in the B.C. legislature on Feb. 27.

“When people in this province seek health care, seek an emergency room, they should expect that they’re able to get that access when they need it and where they need it, and that is not happening today.”

Responding to the opposition on Feb. 27, Osborne said health workforce shortages are a “global” issue, and that the NDP government will continue to work to address it.

“We have a global shortage of health-care workers, and that’s why it’s incumbent on us to do everything possible to train and recruit new doctors to our province, to hire more nurses and more health care workers across the system, so that we can deal with the types of staff shortages that we have been seeing,” Osborne said. “We’re going to continue this work.”

In announcing the health authority review on March 31, Osborne said she expects the first update in six weeks, and regular updates thereafter.

B.C.’s Provincial Health Services Authority provides services through BC Cancer, BC Children’s Hospital, BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre, BC Emergency Health Services, BC Mental Health, and the BC Centre for Disease Control.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.