BUDGET 2025: A look at what British Columbians can expect

B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey addresses media Tuesday (March 4, 2025) on Budget Day ahead of the official release of the budget. (Lauren Collins/Black Press Media)

Tuesday's release of B.C.’s 2025 budget carried a heavy theme of holding steady in the face of uncertainty.

Finance Minister Brenda Bailey said this year's forecast and vision for the province focuses on the potential impacts of the U.S. tariffs and maintaining the funding for core services. However, many of the items highlighted in the budget have already been on the books for several years.

Here are the highlights:

Healthcare

Bailey announced $4.2 billion over three years for health, mental health and addictions care. That includes:

• $443 million for the province’s primary-care strategy;

• $870 million for the opening and operation of new facilities, including the under-construction new St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, Terrace’s Mills Memorial Hospital replacement and Kamloop’s Royal Inland Hospital enhancement. In Terrace, patients already began moving into the replace hospital Ksyen Regional in November 2024.

For capital investments, the budget includes $15.5 billion over three years for new and upgraded acute care, long-term care and cancer care facilities throughout the province. Some of those projects include:

• Acute care tower at University Hospital of Northern B.C.;

• The new Surrey hospital and B.C. Cancer Centre and new facilities at Surrey Memorial Hospital. The new Surrey hospital, which is expected to open in 2029, and the new facilities at Surrey Memorial, which was first announced in March 2024 with an unknown budget. 

• Long-term care facilities in Chilliwack and Kelowna;

• Cancer care centres in Nanaimo and Kamloops

K-12 and post-secondary education

The 2025 budget includes $370 million for the kindergarten to Grade 12 education sector aimed at hiring more teachers and supporting the growing number of children with special needs and the funding for special education teachers to go along with it.

The province also also allocated $4.6 billion over three years for building, renovating and seismically upgrading schools. Major projects include:

• $392 million in prefabricated school projects that would equal 6,485 news seats in 16 school districts, which are expected to be completed in 2025 and 2026;

• $203 million for the 1,900-seat Smith Secondary in Langley, which is expected to be completed in 2027. That school, and the funding, were first announced in September 2024. 

For First Nations education, the province budgeted $17 million for First Nation reciprocal tuition for students attending First Nations schools.

Budget 2025 also includes $4.7 billion in capital funding for several post-secondary institutions, including:

• $108 million for West Shore Learning Centre campus for Royal Roads in Langford;

• $57 million for the Centre for Food, Wine and Tourism at Okanagan College in Kelowna. When the centre was first announced in March 2023, the provincial government announced it would be providing $44.8 million for the centre;

• $34 million for interim space for new medical school at Simon Fraser University in Surrey. The NDP government first promised the new medical school during the 2020 provincial campaign, and then in July 2024 announced $33.7 million for the interim space in addition to $27 million in operational funding.

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