The B.C. budget, unveiled on Tuesday, impacts everyone in the province, and the B.C. seniors advocate says the aging population is facing some new challenges.

“These projects aren’t nice-to-haves,” Dan Levitt told Global News.

“These are needed beds that are urgently needed from family caregivers who are really being pushed to the edge caring for someone.”

As part of the budget, B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey announced the province is pausing some infrastructure projects, including seven long-term care facilities in Abbotsford, Campbell River, Chilliwack, Kelowna, Delta, Fort St. John, and Squamish.

Levitt said someone is already waiting an average of 10 months to get into long-term care.

“We need to urgently build long-term care,” he said.

“We’re currently short 2,000 beds, while 7,000 people are waiting. You fast forward a decade from now, when one in four British Columbians will be over the age of 65, and by then the Ministry of Health predicts we’re going to need 16,000 beds.”

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B.C. budget features major debt and deficit increases

Levitt said now is not the time to be slowing down investments in long-term care or home supports.

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He said the province needs to be supporting children and growing families, but also supporting the aging demographic.

“We certainly understand that some of those projects were quite expensive, almost $2 million a bed,” Levitt said.

“In some cases, around $1.8 million a bed. The new numbers they’re closer to $1 million in some cases. But it’s still more expensive for government to build their owned and operated than for the private sector, for example, for for-profit or non-profit to build.”

Levitt said the province should be building homes that feel like a house, not an institution.

“There’s much more we need to do to have a provincial robust seniors plan that includes aging a place where you live,” he said.

Levitt said that over the past decades, the province has not built enough beds to supply the growing demand for seniors.

“If you think about it, in the past five years, we built five per cent more additional beds at a time when the population of seniors increased 19 per cent,” he said.

“Over the next decade, we’ll have 26 per cent more seniors and only 3,000 additional beds, about 10 per cent new bed stock.

“Family members are the ones who are hurting the most by the lack of investments in seniors care and their family members who are waiting for those beds are the ones really who are paying the price.”

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B.C.’s Finance Minister, Brenda Bailey, has delivered the 2026 budget.

Here are five things you need to know.

Bailey has promised there would be years of declining deficits, but first it is projected to spike by a hefty 38 per cent to a record $13.3 billion next fiscal year, compared with an updated forecast for the current year of $9.6 billion.

While the deficit is forecast to increase $3.7 billion year on year, Bailey said a “guiding principle” was that the deficit would decrease “over time,” with the ongoing impact of structural changes such as the tax increase and public sector cuts.

But even that does not change the fact that the deficit remains stubbornly high — under the budget’s three-year plan, it would be $11.4 billion in the 2028 fiscal year.

B.C.’s debt is going to continue to grow, with no cuts in the budget this year.

The cost of servicing programs like child welfare, social assistance, and pharmacare is rapidly escalating.

“The cost to providing care is increasing,” Bailey said in the budget.

“Our government has been working hard to make sure that British Columbians can access the care they need, when they need it. A lot of progress has been made.

“This summer will welcome the very first class of medical students to the new SFU Medical School in Surrey. And in the year ahead, we expect to break ground on the school’s permanent home.”

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Bailey said more British Columbians are getting a family doctor, which is in addition to the hundreds of maintenance and renovation projects to modernize and upgrade hospitals throughout B.C.

“These projects represent the largest investment in health care infrastructure in B.C. history,” she said.

“But we know there is still much more to do. We must remain focused on protecting what we’ve built and delivering better, faster health care for people. This spring, as part of a national pharmacare agreement, B.C. will provide enhanced public coverage for both menopausal hormone therapy and a wide range of diabetes medication and devices. We are also continuing to fund in vitro fertilization treatments so people can start a family.”

Bailey said a comprehensive review of health authorities has identified administration duplication and redirected savings to the front lines of health care. She said that since the review began, 1,100 administrative positions have been eliminated, closed or left vacant, with those savings to be invested in frontline patient care.

B.C. will pace infrastructure projects “carefully,” Bailey said, to deliver them efficiently without driving up costs.

The completion or construction of some long-term care homes will be delayed, along with phase two of Burnaby Hospital.

There are delays to seven long-term care projects from Abbotsford to Fort St. John, as well as the second phase of Burnaby Hospital and Cancer Care, and student housing at the University of Victoria.

“Our priorities are clear,” Bailey said. “Protect and improve core public services that people rely on, like health care and education. Keep B.C., one of the lowest taxed provinces for middle and working class families. Reduce the deficit responsibly over time while protecting what’s working.”

She said three steps will help the province achieve this — make the public sector leaner, pace infrastructure projects carefully and make changes to generate revenue, while taking action to grow the economy and secure the long-term impact of major projects.

Bailey said growth in B.C. has not kept pace with the cost of delivering public services, therefore, the province needs to rebuild a stable and sustainable revenue base.

“People earning under $149,000 will continue to pay the lowest personal income taxes in the country,” she said.

“Budget 2026 includes a change to the first income tax bracket of about half a percentage point. We’ll offset the extra costs for lower-income earners by increasing the B.C. tax reduction credit.

“We’re also updating some household-related taxes, some housing-related taxes; those with homes above $3 million in value will be asked to contribute a little more. The property tax deferment program is being changed to help those who need it most, and the vast majority of homeowners don’t see a change.”

The tax rate on the lowest bracket is being increased by 0.54 per cent, with government staff saying 60 per cent of tax filers will face higher bills, and the average taxpayer will be hit with a $76 hike.

The budget says increasing the bottom tax rate to 5.6 per cent means a maximum impact of $201 on people earning more than $140,000 without additional credits, while credits for some lower earners are being raised.

B.C.’s 2026 budget expands the province’s PST tax base to include professional services, such as accounting and bookkeeping, architectural, geoscientist and engineering services, commercial real-estate fees and security and private investigation services.

Bailey said that this change generally aligns B.C. with how other provinces apply sales taxes to these services.

PST exemptions will also be removed from some goods and services such as clothing repair materials, services related to clothing and footwear, basic cable television and landline telephone services.

Bailey said that expanding the tax to these services is generally consistent with how tax applies to these services in most provinces.

The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade is giving this budget a ‘D’ rating.

–with files from The Canadian Press

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