Vaughn Palmer: After overseeing huge increases in construction costs, the NDP calls a halt |
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Vaughn Palmer: After overseeing huge increases in construction costs, the NDP calls a halt
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VICTORIA — Finance Minister Brenda Bailey called a halt this week on construction of seven long-term care homes, saying the estimated price tags were prohibitively expensive.
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“We have seen such a ballooning of cost in long-term care, it’s turning my hair grey,” Bailey told the CBC’s Stephen Quinn.
Vaughn Palmer: After overseeing huge increases in construction costs, the NDP calls a halt Back to video
“When I first started in politics six years ago, these projects were coming in priced at about $800,000 a bed for us to build long-term care facilities. The last one that came across my desk was $1.8 million per bed. You can buy a downtown Yaletown waterfront condo for $1.8 million per bed.”
When the B.C. Conservatives pressed Bailey for her rationale during question period Wednesday, the finance minister pushed back.
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“Maybe you would like to spend $1.8 million per bed,” she challenged the Opposition. “We wouldn’t. We’re going to bring that cost down.”
Bailey went out of her way on budget day to maintain that the projects in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Delta and elsewhere were not cancelled.
They were being “re-paced,” an obscure euphemism for “delayed” that must have overtaxed the search engines in her ministry.
But whatever word one chooses, the projects would not proceed until a lower cost is forthcoming, said Bailey.
“We’re going back to the drawing board because we cannot afford to spend that kind of money on long-term care.”
Finance will be working with the new Ministry of Infrastructure to come up with a way to deliver more long-term beds at a more reasonable price.
“We can look at having standardized builds, we can look at using prefabricated, and we can look at the specs that we’re building to,” said Bailey. “Are we building more than we need to, or can we bring it down?”
One thing she didn’t mention was consulting the private and non-profit operators who have already developed cheaper ways to deliver care facilities.
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Is Bailey aware that some operators say they can build for $1 million a bed or even less?
“That’s the range we are thinking of as well,” she replied.
Sobering to think that a more-reasonable model might already exist, yet outside government where the New Democrats are not inclined to look.
They have already presided over staggering increases in the cost of public construction without blinking.
The NDP’s insistence on union-favouring community benefits agreements added tens of millions of dollars to the cost of selected road, bridge, transit and hospital projects.
Site C doubled in cost on their watch — from $8 billion to $16 billion — and B.C. Hydro still hasn’t provided a satisfactory explanation for the overrun.
This week’s budget reported that the second and third phases of redevelopment at Royal Columbian Hospital have fallen three years behind schedule and gone 50 per cent over budget.
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For the Fraser River tunnel project, which replaces the existing Massey Tunnel crossing, Bailey’s budget stuck with a costing of $4.15 billion, an estimate announced almost five years ago.
However, the fine print showed the government no longer believed its own number.
“The estimated cost of the project is being updated and reviewed as the design and contract negotiations progress,” said a footnote. “The province will update the project budget and schedule once negotiations with the contractor have concluded.”
Now that’s what I call “re-pacing.”
Also this week, Bailey answered a question about her decision to terminate the merit commissioner, the independent officer of the legislature who reviews public service appointments to ensure they are fair and free of partisanship.
The independent scrutiny is no longer needed because the merit principles have been absorbed into the NDP government’s own public service agency, she claimed.
Thirty minutes after the finance minister consigned the commissioner to the scrap heap, the NDP chair of the legislature finance committee, Paul Choi, introduced a report calling for the merit commission to be funded for another three years.
Another example of the NDP government’s failure to keep its own members up to speed on the hidden agenda.
Or, as one wag joked, in David Eby’s NDP, the left hand doesn’t know what the other left hand is doing.
There was nothing funny about the first report on Bailey’s budget from one of the major credit rating agencies.
“B.C. Budget 2026 — Record deficits, higher borrowing and no path to balance,” read the headline atop the report from Morningstar DBRS research.
“At our last review of the province in April 2025, we changed the trend to negative, reflecting our view that BC’s approach to fiscal management has been gradually deteriorating in recent years,” it read.
“We noted that a negative credit rating action could result if the province fails to materially outperform the fiscal and debt trajectories embedded in its plan.”
Instead the province went in the opposition direction.
“While the province had previously indicated a potential path to balance, Budget 2026 suggests a worsening deficit trajectory and faster-than-expected debt accumulation,” the agency wrote. “We plan to conduct our annual review of the province in the coming weeks.”
Unless the New Democrats can show how they are turning things around, I expect they will be responsible for another downgrade to B.C.’s credit rating. A downgrade would mean B.C. would have to pay higher interest rates to borrow.
vpalmer@postmedia.com
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