Hospitals, Surrey Transit and Highway 1 Are Stuck in B.C.’s $4B Delivery Gap
The NDP booked the capital plan, took the political credit, then left a quarter of it unspent. That is not just “slippage” — it is a delivery record.
David Eby’s government wants credit for building. The ledger says British Columbians should also count what was budgeted and not built at the promised pace.
Postmedia reports the NDP government acknowledged that $4 billion of its $15-billion capital plan for the 2025-26 fiscal year went unspent — roughly one quarter of the plan. The affected list is not abstract. It includes the new St. Paul’s Hospital, the new Cowichan District Hospital, Surrey rapid transit, Highway 1 improvements between Mt. Lehman and Highway 11, the Broadway subway, schools, post-secondary expansions and health facilities.
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey’s explanation matters. She described this as “slippage,” not the same as “repacing” or cancelling a project. In other words, the government’s claim is that these projects are still moving, only slower than scheduled because of issues such as labour shortages and supply-chain challenges.
That distinction should be reported fairly. But it does not erase the accountability problem. If a government announces a capital plan, books the money, campaigns on the promise and then cannot deliver a quarter of that plan in-year, people waiting for hospitals, transit and safer highways still pay the price in time.
The project-level numbers are serious. Postmedia reported health-care infrastructure spending came in $1.8 billion below expectation, including $120 million less than expected for the new St. Paul’s Hospital and $119 million for the new Cowichan District Hospital. Transportation capital spending by the B.C. Transportation Financing Authority was $1.2 billion below expectation, including $178 million for Surrey rapid transit and $117 million for Highway 1 between Mt. Lehman and Highway 11.
The province’s own Public Accounts page says Public Accounts compare actual financial results at year-end to the budget plan set at the beginning of the fiscal year. The government’s August 10 release says B.C. invested $11 billion in taxpayer-supported capital projects in 2025-26, including $3.1 billion for health-care facilities, $4.1 billion for transportation and $2.8 billion for K-12 schools and post-secondary housing.
Those totals are not nothing. But they are not the whole story. When the government celebrates record capital investment while regular “slippage” leaves billions unspent, the public deserves a project-by-project delivery scoreboard: original budget, revised timeline, amount deferred, cause of delay, expected cost pressure and who is accountable for recovery.
The hard question for Eby is simple: if this happens year after year, when does “slippage” stop being an excuse and become the NDP’s management record?