2024 Provincial Election

The BC NDP platform pledges to train, retain and attract more nurses “to deliver nurse-to-patient ratios that support nurses and optimize the delivery of care to patients.” The NDP government committed in April 2023 to the nurse-driven solution of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. Ratios have now been established for most hospital settings, with implementation starting in fall 2024. The government’s plan is to establish ratios in long-term care, assisted living and community care settings in 2025

The BC Conservatives have not taken a public position on minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.

BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau has signed BCNU’s pledge to support the continued implementation of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.

The BC NDP platform platform prioritizes recruiting and training nurse practitioners and nurses, including doubling the size of UBC’s nurse practitioner program. The NDP government has made significant investments in a number of nurse retention and recruitment initiatives, including $273M in March 2024 as part of its broader commitment to the implementation of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios across hospitals, long-term care, assisted living, and community care settings.

The BC Conservative platform promises to increase hiring of nurses, doctors, specialists and other health-care professionals. They have also committed to expanding programs that incentivize doctors and nurses to work in rural and remote communities.

The BC Green platform highlights that growth in the health-care workforce has not kept pace with the growing demand on the system. It also identifies workload and health and safety issues as barriers to retaining nurses and acknowledges the emotional toll on nurses when they can’t provide the level of care our patients deserve. The Greens pledge to adopt and implement the federal government’s nursing retention toolkit.

The BC NDP platform names “American-style privatization” as a problem that puts health care at risk. BC has seen continued investment in the public health-care system under the NDP government in a wide variety of areas, including building or expanding hospitals, creating GoHealth to attract private agency nurses back into the public system and investing significant public dollars in retaining and recruiting health-care professionals.

The BC Conservative platform promises to continue increasing health care funding with spending focused on front-line services. However, they have also taken a position opposing public delivery of health care, calling government “an inefficient delivery vehicle for services.” The party’s commitments to reform health care involve expanding the role of for-profit corporations, such as a pledge to “unleash the power of private-sector innovation” in health care. It is important to note that BC Conservative leader John Rustad was an MLA in the BC Liberal government from 2005 to 2017, a period when the government consistently moved to privatize parts of the health-care system. Such privatization efforts pull staff and resources away from the public system to serve those who can afford to pay for care – at the expense of quality and timely care for everyone else.

The BC Green platform prioritizes “rejecting privatization for a patient-centered approach” and is critical of the government for the millions of dollars it spends annually on private care. Their policies prioritize health-care solutions that strengthen the public system. The platform also identifies BC’s reliance on private agency nurses as a problem and pledges to direct funding at bringing those nurses into the public system.

The BC NDP platform plans to continue the government’s work on reconciliation with a focus on Indigenous housing education and supports for families and people. The NDP government’s adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in 2019 was a significant step in the right direction.

The BC Conservatives have said they will repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which was passed unanimously in the BC Legislature in 2019. The Union of BC Indian Chiefs calls the idea of repealing it “dangerous.” The party pledges instead to focus on “economic reconciliation.”

The BC Green platform pledges to “uphold Indigenous self-determination, address rights and title and support the customary roles and lives of Indigenous peoples.”

The BC NDP government endorsed the SOGI 123 resource, which has been important to help address discrimination and bullying, creating a supportive and inclusive environment in schools for 2SLGBTQIA+ students.

The BC Conservatives have said they would abolish use of the SOGI 123 resource, which would take support away from 2SLGBTQIA+ students in BC schools.

The BC Greens would continue supporting and expanding the SOGI 123 initiative to create inclusive school environments that support LGBTQ+ students and address issues of gender identity and sexual orientation.