Lorne Doerkson promises to keep current government healthcare spending in place, while investing in more doctors and nurses, so ERs and maternity wards stay open.
100 MILE HOUSE, B.C. – Conservative Party of BC Leader Lorne Doerkson today announced a plan to keep British Columbia’s emergency rooms open, recruit and retain more doctors and nurses, and launch an expert commission within 100 days to cut wait times. Doerkson committed to protecting health care funding and keeping BC’s system universal and publicly funded.
After nine years of NDP government, BC’s health care system is in crisis. British Columbians are paying more in taxes for healthcare, but waiting longer than ever for care. The NDP promised improvements in 2024. Two years later, over a million British Columbians still have no family doctor. Emergency rooms closed 2,400 times in two years. And in 2025, the wait from referral to specialist treatment reached 32.2 weeks, the longest on record.
“After nine years of NDP failure, families are waiting hours in emergency rooms, or finding that they’re not even open. Seniors are being told to wait months for surgery, and expectant mothers are driving hours to give birth because their local maternity ward has closed,” said Doerkson. “British Columbians deserve serious change, and my government will deliver it, while making sure every British Columbian can always get the care they need with nothing more than their health card.”
A Conservative government will keep emergency rooms open. It will hire and retain more doctors and nurses, support rural medical practices at risk of closing, and invest $50 million into an emergency fund, all while protecting current health care funding. It will train more doctors here in BC, bring home Canadians who studied medicine abroad, and speed up international credential recognition.
Within its first 100 days, a Conservative government will launch an expert commission to bring proven solutions from other public systems to BC, while ensuring British Columbians never need anything more than their health card to get care.
“No British Columbian should ever arrive at an emergency room to find the doors locked, or wonder whether care will be there when their family needs it most,” said Doerkson. “We can and should have the best health care system in the world, but getting there will take strong leadership for serious times.”
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Alex Shiff, Director of Media Relations
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