Thursday May 1, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 2 pm | Updated 2:44 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Today Premier David Eby and Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma addressed media about the legislative changes that they believe will enable the BC government to expedite the development of key infrastructure projects around the province.
They seek to reduce delays in the construction of hospitals, schools, student housing, medical schools, long-term care facilities, and transportation infrastructure.
Minister Ma said today that delays have resulted from “slow, unclear or duplicative projects”.
They delivered an assurance that environment and First Nations considerations would not be compromised.
Population factor:
Population growth is driving factor that keeps BC needing to expand its basic societal infrastructure like schools, hospitals, housing and transportation networks that have “unambiguous social good”.
Eby says the population of BC increased by 300,000 in two years, and that BC is the fastest-growing province in Canada (after the much smaller Prince Edward Island).
Minister Ma said the population increased by 188,000 in just one year (June 2023 to June 2024). But juxtaposed to that is a need for the following infrastructure for even just 10,000 more people”
- 50 classrooms
- 18 hospital beds
- 4,000 homes
The BC NDP formed government in 2017. Ma today said that in the last eight years the BC government has completed or has in progress 38 hospital projects, 228 major school projects and 10,700 post-secondary student housing beds as well as launching construction of the new medical school in Surrey, several long-term care facilities and several transportation network projects.
Efficiencies:
Some of the promised infrastructure efficiencies will result from grouping similar projects together as a way of saving costs across projects, as well as delivering projects on behalf of smaller communities or entities (like school districts, health authorities and post-secondary institutions) that may not be set up for construction project operations.
Projects of entities like BC Hydro will be included in the new approach.
Projects will be executed by the province in two categories. Category One is major government projects (e.g. hospitals, schools and highways), and Category 2 is more local projects that are deemed to be serving a BC-related priority of significant economic, social or environmental benefit.
Provincial priorities will be food security, critical mineral supply, replacement of US imports and disaster recovery.
An example of where facility construction became a focus of a school district (possibly to the unintended detriment of focusing on classroom delivery) is the Sooke School District (SD62) in a region that has seen consistently rapid population growth since 2008. There is similar rapid population growth with young families requiring schools in Surrey.
Eby and Ma articulated some examples of where construction of one school was delayed by six months because the local government had to go through an OCP process as to school location, and another school for which construction was delayed by a full year to deal with a ditch that was thought to possibly be vulnerable to environmental impacts.
Energy projects:
Major energy projects (like dams and LNG) will not be subject to the new efficiencies approach, but smaller renewable energy projects could be.
Infrastructure Ministry:
The new Infrastructure Ministry was made official through legislation today. Eby created the Ministry and appointed Bowinn Ma to lead it, after the October 2024 election.
Mandate letters to all new ministers were delivered on January 16, 2025. All mandate letters include mention of dealing with the federal government where appropriate.
This spring session of the legislature started on February 19 and wraps up May 29.
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