A Conservative government would create a $50-million fund to help address rural healthcare emergency room closures and staffing shortages.
Lorne Doerkson, the Conservative Party of B.C.’s interim leader and the incumbent MLA for the Cariboo-Chilcotin, made the announcement in 100 Mile House on Monday, Oct.
5, outside the District General Hospital.
Doerkson also pledged not to cut the 2026 healthcare budget and to make healthcare funding a priority in future budgets, if elected premier.
“There is no greater responsibility as premier of this province to ensure that British Columbians have a world-class, universally accessible healthcare system that is there when you need it most,” Doerkson said.
“Today I am standing in front of a hospital that has been closed 39 times.
This hospital is a standing demonstration of B.C.’s broken healthcare system, but it’s not just here.
It’s happening everywhere across our province.” 100 Mile House’s emergency room has been frequently closed throughout 2026.
While the total number of announced closures is 39, Interior Health has found a locum at the last minute to reopen the ER on several occasions.
That being said, the ER has been closed well over 30 times.
Joining Doerkson at the podium was his political mentor and the previous MLA for the Cariboo-Chilcotin, Donna Barnett.
She spoke as a longtime resident of 100 Mile House who had relied on the hospital throughout her life.
“This emergency room serves a large area.
The South Cariboo depends on its doors being open,” Barnett said.
“We have people who live an hour and a half from here.
For them, this ER is not a convenience.
We have a lot of seniors in this community; for them this building is the difference between getting help and not getting help.” Doerkson claimed that after 10 years of NDP government, the trust British Columbians had in their healthcare system is broken.
He said that 1.2 million British Columbians, or one in five, still do not have a family doctor.
The wait times for those seeking healthcare were also criticized by Doerkson.
He said the time from a referral to a specialist treatment is now over 32 weeks, almost a month longer than Canada’s national average.
“For those requiring surgery and diagnostic care, such as MRIs and CT scans, the wait times have doubled.
British Columbians are waiting nearly a year for these medical procedures.
The human cost of failure is staggering,” Doerkson said.
“In 2025 alone, one in three patients waited longer than the clinical benchmark for surgery.
Most damming of all, data from the NDP government reveals nearly 17,000 British Columbians died while sitting on surgical and diagnostic waitlists between 2022 and 2026.” While B.C.
has some of the finest doctors and healthcare workers in the world, Doerkson said they are trapped in a “failing, bloated bureaucracy.” He claimed a third of B.C.’s nurses quit the profession before the age of 35 due to severe burnout.
Dorkerson said that a new Conservative government would restore the promise of public health for British Columbians.
He pledged they would build a “world-class” public healthcare system that is there when it is needed.
To do this, he said his party would maintain a “rock-solid” commitment to B.C.’s publicly funded, universally accessible healthcare system.
“The Conservative government will maintain healthcare funding at the levels that have been approved in the 2026....
