Editorial cartoon of shiny clinic-ribbon promises beside a weary health worker holding an empty staffing roster near a locked clinic door
Cartoon: ribbon promises cannot staff clinic doors by themselves.
The fair question is not whether Kitimat, Terrace, Richmond-Steveston, Penticton, Port Hardy or Courtenay-Comox need better care. They do. The question is whether David Eby will show the staffing, opening-date, capacity and attachment receipts behind the promises.

The BC NDP has turned the final campaign week into a clinic-announcement blitz. Its own releases say a re-elected NDP government would add Urgent and Primary Care Centres in Kitimat and Terrace, build Richmond’s third UPCC in Richmond-Steveston, add a second UPCC in Penticton, open a new UPCC in Port Hardy, and add a second UPCC in Courtenay–Comox.

Those communities should not be mocked for needing care close to home. But voters should reject the idea that a campaign release equals access. A UPCC is only real for patients when the door opens, the phones are answered, the staff are hired, the hours are funded, and people who need longitudinal primary care are actually attached to a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

The NDP’s releases make campaign claims that the province now has 48 UPCCs, that the centres have provided more than five million visits, and that more than one million people have been connected to a family doctor. Those are claims voters can test. The government’s own September 16 health release also says 323,000 people were still registered with the Health Connect Registry as of September 2026. That is the number Eby’s clinic blitz has to answer.

BCNU has already given the campaign a harder test. Its 2026 election materials ask party leaders about full nurse-to-patient ratio implementation, safe workplaces, recruitment and retention, agency nursing, and whether leaders will strengthen public health care. That matters because every new clinic promise lands on the same workforce. If the plan is to open more doors without enough nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians and support workers, the promise simply moves the queue from one hallway to another.

So publish the ledger. For each promised UPCC, voters should see the site, capital budget, operating budget, opening window, hours, patient capacity, confirmed staff model, recruitment assumptions, and the expected effect on the local Health Connect Registry. If a release says the centre will ease emergency-room pressure, show the baseline ER volume and the target reduction. If a release says patients will get timely care, show the appointment and walk-in rules before the ribbon photo.

The strongest case for new clinics is honesty. Communities need them because the system is under strain. But final-week announcements without staffing receipts are not proof of delivery. They are political invoices with the totals missing. Before voters finish marking ballots on October 24, Eby should put the UPCC ledger in public view: which clinics, which workers, which dates, which patients, and what happens if the workers cannot be hired.

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