A B.C. government promotion to hand out free coffee and tea to recruit U.S. health-care workers to move to the province to work came with a hefty price tag.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation submitted a Freedom of Information request to find out how much the two-day initiative in June 2025 in Seattle cost B.C. taxpayers.
“This process took so long because government and the third party were fighting tooth and nail to prevent taxpayers from seeing these documents,” Carson Binda with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation told Global News.
He said they decided to file the Freedom of Information request after B.C. Premier David Eby posted a photo of the coffee truck on his social media account.
“These invoices show the province spent $165,000 delivering 1,000 cups of coffee to health-care workers in the United States,” Binda said.
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“That works out to about $165 per cup of coffee.”
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The invoice shows that taxpayers paid for a branded truck, 1,000 cups of coffee, 1,000 branded cups and napkins, location procurement, and about 10 consultants to hand out the coffee or tea.
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The opposition said this raises many questions about the campaign results.
“My question would be what did this result in, how many applications, but more importantly, how many jobs were confirmed by this spend with this specific truck and this massive coffee order?” Trevor Halford, interim leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, said.
B.C.’s Health Ministry acknowledged the colourful coffee truck was part of their recruitment marketing campaign, calling it money well spent. They noted more than 500 health-care professionals have been hired from the U.S.
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“There’s no doubt that we have a health-care worker shortage here, but I also think too that this government needs to be accountable with what they’re doing with taxpayer dollars,” Halford said.
Binda said he understands that the province is actively recruiting health-care workers from the U.S., but he doesn’t think anyone is moving their family because the government gave them a free cup of coffee.
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