He Inherited a $6-Billion Surplus. Now Seniors Are Waiting 277 Days for a Bed.

On March 26, B.C. Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt released his annual monitoring report with numbers that should stop every British Columbian in their tracks. Wait lists for publicly funded long-term care have grown 200% in six years — from 2,381 people in 2016 to more than 7,212 today. The average wait time for a bed has nearly doubled, reaching 277 days. That wait time increased 34% in the last year alone. One in five British Columbians is now over 65. Within a decade, it will be one in four.¹

“This is not a seniors budget,” Levitt said after reviewing the 2026 provincial budget. “It doesn’t help seniors in a time when we should be investing in seniors and seniors care.”

The province is building roughly 600 long-term care beds per year. Levitt says 2,000 per year are needed. The government’s own plans do not forecast any new beds beyond 2030. Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of the CanAge advocacy organization, called this “woefully inadequate” and said B.C. is “decades behind” Ontario in planning for its aging population.²

The question is not whether British Columbia can afford to care for its seniors. The question is where the money went. When David Eby replaced the late John Horgan as premier in late 2022, he inherited an almost $6-billion operating surplus and a provincial debt of $89.4 billion, or roughly 22.3% of GDP. The province’s finances were the strongest in a generation.³

In less than four years, Eby has turned that surplus into a record $13.3-billion projected deficit. His government has grown spending 39% since Horgan, while revenue has increased only 18%. His budgets have run up a projected $35.3 billion in cumulative deficits. Provincial debt has more than doubled under his leadership — from $89.4 billion to a projected $234.6 billion by 2028-29, more than tripling since the NDP first took office in 2017.⁴

The debt-to-GDP ratio tells the same story. When Eby took over, it stood at 22.3%. Budget 2026 projects it will exceed 46% before the end of the decade. Debt servicing is now the province’s third-largest expenditure.⁵

QY Liu / Unsplash — Premier David Eby inherited an almost $6-billion surplus when he replaced John Horgan in late 2022. His budgets have since run up a projected $35.3 billion in cumulative deficits.

The spending surge did not go to seniors care. It did not fix emergency rooms. It did not keep pace with the aging population. The Globe and Mail documented the gap between the Eby government’s projections and reality: health care spending was projected to rise 10.6% in fiscal 2024, then 3.9% in 2025, then 2.6% in 2026. Instead, it rose by 15%, then 25.9%, then 11.9%. Rather than the projected three-year increase of 17.9%, health care spending surged by 62% — and the system still cannot house its elderly or staff its emergency rooms.⁶

Hospital emergency departments routinely close across the province. Waitlists are pushing more British Columbians toward private care. Mass transit has not kept pace with urban development. Infrastructure projects run over budget and behind schedule. And on the streets, the evidence of British Columbians left behind is visible in every major city.

The province’s own deputy minister to the premier, Shannon Salter, acknowledged in a recent email that B.C. has an “unsustainable provincial budget deficit.” Economists say the deficit is structural — meaning it is not caused by a temporary economic downturn and cannot be expected to shrink with stronger growth. The ICBA’s chief economist projects the province will add almost $58 billion in operating debt by 2027-28.⁷

Eby’s response has been to cut 2,000 public service jobs, announce a hiring freeze, and promise to “reduce the bureaucracy.” But as The Hub noted, the party has plunged into an eight-point deficit in the polls, forestry employment continues to shrink, mining projects face prolonged permitting timelines, and energy investment has shifted to provinces with faster approvals.⁸

Meanwhile, the burden falls on families. Levitt’s report documents that the long-term care system “relies heavily on overburdened family caregivers” and that this model is “unsustainable and requires immediate attention.” Women disproportionately leave the workforce to provide care — creating generational poverty as those caregivers lose income, pension contributions, and retirement savings. A quarter of B.C. seniors are living on $2,000 per month. Half are living on just over $3,000.⁹

The Seniors Advocate has been asking the province to eliminate the home care co-payment for years. His predecessor asked the same thing. The request has gone nowhere.

David Eby inherited the strongest provincial finances in a generation. He turned a $6-billion surplus into a $13.3-billion deficit. He grew spending 39% while revenue rose 18%. Provincial debt is on track to triple. Health care spending overshot his own government’s projections by 62% over three years — and it still was not enough to build the long-term care beds, staff the emergency rooms, or keep wait times from doubling. More than 7,000 British Columbians are waiting for a long-term care bed. The average wait is 277 days. The province’s own Seniors Advocate looked at the 2026 budget and said four words: “This is not a seniors budget.” The money was spent. The seniors were not.