Lorne Doerkson pledges to create $50M fund to address emergency room closures

Lorne Doerkson pledges to create $50M fund to address emergency room closures

Published 3:28 pm Monday, October 5, 2026

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 budget. More importantly, when the finance minister starts to build the budget each and every year, our first decision will be to fully fund healthcare,” Doerkson said.

“Second, we will rebuild our frontline workforce. We will scrap the NDP’s administrative red tape. We will prioritize B.C. students for medical training, fast-track credential recognition for foreign-trained Canadian doctors coming home and automatically recognize credentials from other provinces.”

Doerkson also pledged to reverse ER closures and increase rural healthcare access. He said his government would increase more flexible staffing capacity to avoid ER and maternity ward closures.

To support this effort, Doerkson announced the creation of a $50-million emergency fund which will be available to rural medical practices to “prevent closures and aid recruitment.” When later asked by the 100 Mile Free Press if this fund would be a one-time investment or a recurring effort, Doerkson did not provide a clear answer.

Doerkson also announced his intent to create an expert review panel which will examine other universally, publicly funded healthcare systems around the world. They will then recommend proven practices that could be implemented in B.C.

“The review will focus on reducing wait times, keeping ERs open, maternity wards open, rural healthcare, expanding system capacity and strengthening the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals from everywhere we can reach,” Doerkson explained.

During his remarks, Doerkson thanked 100 Mile House resident Amber Vigh for attending his announcement. Vigh is the founder of Carter’s Project, which was started in memory of her son Carter Vigh, who died at the 100 Mile District General Hospital in 2023 at the age of nine from an asthma attack triggered by wildfire smoke.

Vigh said she attended the conference to support Doerkson’s candidacy and to reinforce the importance of keeping the ER open. She noted that while the ER was thankfully open when her son passed away, had it not been, he would have likely died in an ambulance heading to Williams Lake. That would have meant her husband, James, would not have been able to be at his side.

“I think it’s incredibly important our hospital is always open. Every time I hear one of (Doerkson’s) announcements, I try to hold it together. I’m so incredibly proud of the things he’s going to do with our province and with the Cariboo, I support him 100 per cent,” Vigh said.

Following Doerkson’s press conference, the B.C. NDP criticized Doerkson for not answering follow-up questions and for not stating how he plans to pay for his plan without cutting services. The NDP have insisted several times in recent days that Doerkson and the Conservatives plan to cut funding for healthcare and education. Incumbent Premier David Eby touched on this during one of his own campaign events on Monday.

“Let’s be honest with ourselves about where the money goes in government. It goes to healthcare and education. And as the conservatives noted, those are the two biggest line items in the budget,” Eby said. “And if we want good neighbourhood schools for our kids, and if we want healthcare, if we want seniors (to have) access to the shingles vaccine, if we want to open long-term care beds, if we want to recruit medical professionals … then we’re going to have to find a way to pay for it. And that’s where the Conservatives are being really dishonest.”

The NDP said they plan to fund new investments to strengthen B.C.’s healthcare system by introducing a new tax for millionaires and the “top four per cent” of earners in the province. Doerkson criticized this tax during his appearance in 100 Mile House.

“Yesterday, David Eby stood before us and suggested this was a millionaire tax. Today we find a totally different situation,” Doerkson said. “What I’m very fearful of is that while we try to attract doctors to… British Columbia, the reality is that this tax seems to be levied right at this group of people. I feel that this is a negative situation for doctors that are considering coming here. Frankly, I feel it may even drive doctors from our province.”