Surrey-White Rock MLA questions local maternity diversions in B.C. legislature<\/p>\n
Published 1:30 pm Thursday, February 19, 2026<\/p>\n
Surrey-White Rock MLA Trevor Halford had some questions about the ongoing maternity diversions at a White Rock hospital in the B.C. Legislature Thursday.<\/p>\n
During oral question period, Halford, who is the interim Leader of the Official Opposition, noted Peace Arch Hospital\u2019s maternity ward has now been closed for the fourth time in six weeks, and for the seventh time in 10 <\/a>weeks<\/a>, as yet another \u201ctemporary\u201d maternity diversion took effect Thursday morning (Feb. 19) at 8 a.m.<\/p>\n \u201cSince December of last year, the maternity ward has been closed over 21 days. Expectant mothers are being left in limbo, which is completely unacceptable,\u201d Halford said. \u201cDoctors have been warning this government about a shortage of OB-GYNS for years and that has fallen on deaf ears \u2026 this government has also failed to address the urgency that it deserves.<\/p>\n \u201cMy question to the premier, to this government, is a direct one: Why has the government failed to keep the doors of these maternity wards \u2014 whether it\u2019s Peace Arch Hospital or Maple Ridge \u2014 why has this government failed mothers, and why does it continue to do so?\u201d<\/p>\n B.C. Minister of Health Josie Osborne said she understands the diversions can be stressful for expecting mothers and families.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to assure all members of this house that the health authorities always take every step they possibly can to fill gaps in service, to find locums, and there are unfortunately cases where this just isn\u2019t possible. \u2026 This is because of a shortage of the specialists that are required for this service,\u201d Osborne said, and encouraged all expectant parents to attend the hospital nearest to them and work with their care provider for alternate arrangements as required.<\/p>\n \u201cI also want to assure members of this house that this government continues to do everything that we can to increase the number of specialists in this province \u2014 we are making progress, Mr. Speaker, through the actions we are taking, by recruiting physicians from other jurisdictions. \u2026 We will continue this work in bringing in more physicians, in creating more physicians through the new medical school at SFU, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n Halford fired back that Osborne\u2019s response was nothing new.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s the problem in itself \u2014 the answer that the minister just gave is an answer that she has given time and time again \u2014 in this house, outside to media (and) more importantly, to expectant mothers, and the minister before her carried on that tradition as well,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the urgency that this government has \u2026 we are not seeing in the maternity wards. The minister says to go to the nearest hospital \u2014 if it\u2019s open, they can do that, but if you\u2019re in other areas of this province, chances are, it might not be. You might have to drive four to five hours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t believe the minister \u2014 it\u2019s the fact that the doctors don\u2019t believe the minister. That is the problem,\u201d Halford said, to thunderous applause.<\/p>\n Halford also touched on the fact that 97 per cent of the province\u2019s paramedics are \u201cprepared to reduce their work to fight for fair and equitable wages.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Will this minister stand up and realize that she has absolutely failed our frontline workers, specifically paramedics, yes or no?\u201d Halford questioned.<\/p>\n Osborne responded with \u201cThis government has taken consistent and urgent action in creating the conditions for more physicians, for more paramedics and more nurses to join our health-care workforce,\u201d and noted there is a \u201cglobal shortage of health-care workers.\u201d<\/p>\n Maternity diversions at Peace Arch Hospital since Dec. 7, 2025 include:<\/p>\n \u2022 Dec. 7 to 10, 2025<\/p>\n \u2022 Dec. 22 to 25, 2025<\/p>\n \u2022 Dec. 29, 2025, to Jan. 1, 2026<\/p>\n \u2022 Jan. 8 to Jan. 12, 2026<\/p>\n \u2022 Jan. 22 to Jan. 26, 2026<\/p>\n \u2022 Feb. 5 to Feb. 10, 2026<\/p>\n \u2022 Feb. 19 to Feb. 25, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey-White Rock MLA questions local maternity diversions in B.C. legislature Published 1:30 pm Thursday, February 19, 2026 Surrey-White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-492468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}