BC Liberals Grill Government on Promised SFU Medical School

The BC Liberals are accusing the NDP government of breaking a major campaign promise that would increase the number of doctors and other health-care providers trained in the province.

The NDP pledged in the 2020 election campaign to build a new medical school at Simon Fraser University’s campus in Surrey, advanced education critic Coralee Oakes said in the legislature this week.

The government appears to have done little to advance the project since then, she said.

“There has been absolutely no funding for a medical school in Surrey for two consecutive budgets,” Oakes said. “Why is [Advanced Education Minister Anne Kang] breaking the NDP's promise to fund a medical school when there are nearly one million people without a family doctor in the province of British Columbia?”

Health Minister Adrian Dix responded by saying that creating the province’s second medical school is a major project and he and Kang are working on it.

When the NDP formed government in 2017 about 760,000 British Columbians didn’t have a primary care provider, a number that Health Ministry records show has since grown to around 900,000.

The new medical school was one of two commitments on the issue in the NDP platform, along with improving the process for recognizing the credentials of professionals trained in other countries.

“This means more doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and other health professionals trained, graduating and working right here in B.C.,” the platform said.

A press release distributed 11 days before election day in 2020 and widely covered in the province’s media quoted NDP Leader and Premier John Horgan.

“A new medical school will ensure we are training and graduating the next generation of health heroes to work right here in British Columbia. It will give more opportunities for young people to achieve their dreams in the fastest-growing part of our province.”

The plan was for a central facility at SFU’s Surrey campus with learning centres distributed throughout the Fraser Health Authority region. It was to include a partnership with Fraser Health and the First Nations Health Authority aimed at developing training to meet the needs of Indigenous communities.

The release was also specific about the timing. “The first class would begin in 2023-24,” it quoted Dix saying.

When The Tyee asked Dix about the timeline this week, he was less specific.

“It was a commitment made by the premier in the election campaign for this mandate of government, so that gives you a sense of the timeline of us moving forward,” he said. The next election is scheduled for the fall of 2024.

Nobody from SFU was available for an interview Wednesday afternoon. A statement from Catherine Dauvergne, the school's vice-president, academic and provost, said SFU continues to work with the government on how best to move the project ahead.

The school’s webpage for the project sets out a seven-step process moving from the 2020 announcement to “vision for medical school.” As of March 30 it remained on just the second step, “internal community engagement.”

There has been disagreement within government about whether to create the SFU medical school as promised or expand the University of British Columbia’s medical school.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training said in a statement that the ministry is working as quickly as it can. “We are making sure we get it right to train more family doctors in B.C.,” the statement said.

B.C. is the only province of its size with just one medical school. Alberta has two, Quebec has four and Ontario has six.