B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne in Burnaby, B.C., in June. Documents reveal the Ministry of Health directed B.C.’s health authority to balance its budget this fiscal year, separate from and before Health Osborne publicly launched a corporate-spending review.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
British Columbia’s Provincial Health Services Authority has quietly cut more than 50 staff and eliminated more than 60 vacant positions amid a government-ordered spending review and a previously unpublicized directive to balance its budget, internal memos show.
Members of the health authority’s executive leadership team announced the layoffs in a series of five memos sent to their staff between July 23 and Aug. 5 and obtained by The Globe and Mail.
According to the documents, the cuts include “a number of people” at the BC Centre for Disease Control, nine people in finance and business operations, “several” in health systems intelligence, and PHSA’s chief strategy officer, Heather Findlay. Ms. Findlay did not reply to a request for comment Friday.
Since May, a total of 57 staff have departed and 61 vacancies have been eliminated, PHSA spokesperson Cassidy Olivier confirmed in an e-mailed statement Friday. He declined to share a breakdown of the roles eliminated, but said they are all non-unionized, management positions that are not patient-facing.
Reductions to leadership and administrative structures are continuing, Mr. Olivier said, and PHSA is still notifying impacted employees, a process it expects to take several weeks.
The health authority – which provides specialized services such as emergency health and ambulance, cancer care and transplant operations provincewide – employs approximately 26,000 people.
“Our current situation necessitates difficult decisions about people, structures and services offered,“ wrote Christine Massey, PHSA’s executive vice-president of population health and wellness, in a July 30 memo e-mailed to BCCDC staff. ”These changes reflect a commitment to our core services and a careful evaluation of what BCCDC needs to move forward.”
The memos reveal the Ministry of Health directed the health authority to balance its budget this fiscal year, separate from and before Health Minister Josie Osborne publicly launched a corporate-spending review in March.
More layoffs are expected after the review by PHSA’s interim CEO Dr. Penny Ballem, which is expected to be completed in early 2026.
“We are no longer in a period of budget growth. As a health authority, we are mandated to balance our budget to protect the long-term health of our organization and the communities we serve,” reads an update that was posted on an internal portal on Wednesday and obtained by The Globe. “Additional changes may follow, as the health authority review process unfolds and PHSA’s mandate is clarified.”
The documents are a window into rising government pressure on health authorities to rein in administrative costs.
B.C.’s latest quarterly fiscal update, released Thursday, shows rapidly growing debt is weighing on its finances. Despite ending the last fiscal year with a $7.3-billion deficit, $564-million less than was forecasted, debt has ballooned 50 per cent in two years to nearly $134-billion. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey said the province is working on an efficiency review to find spending cuts.
The Ministry of Health did not respond to questions about whether other regional health authorities have also been mandated to balance their budgets this year, or answer why the budget directive and job reductions have not been publicly disclosed.
However, there are interim cost management measures in place while the review is completed, such as a hiring freeze on some managerial positions, ministry spokesperson Tracy Fan said in an e-mailed statement on Friday, adding that all changes are prioritizing patient care.
B.C.’s health authorities have faced accusations of administrative bloat in recent years, including from the Opposition B.C. Conservatives. The province has spent an average of 3.5 per cent of health budgets on administration over the past five years, below the national average of 4.4 per cent, according to the Canadian Centre for Health Information. However in the 2022-23 fiscal year, it spent $347.5-million on health care administration, nearly 50 per cent more than Alberta where there are nearly 20 per cent fewer residents.
NDP Premier David Eby directed Ms. Osborne to order the spending review in her mandate letter earlier this year, and after its launch, he said he expected health authorities to be “lean” and “operating in a way that delivers and focuses resources on those front-line services.”
With a report from Andrea Woo