It’s still not clear exactly why the province chose to defer construction of the new Beedie Long Term Care Centre in Delta, even though $15 million has already been spent prepping the site and its per-bed cost is among the lowest of 12 such projects on the Ministry of Infrastructure’s books.
The facility is one of seven long-term care projects in B.C. deferred by the provincial government in this year’s provincial budget, released on Feb. 17. The other projects are in Abbotsford, Campbell River, Chilliwack, Kelowna, Fort St. John and Squamish.
The budget says the government is “adjusting the timing of delivery” of the projects “to incorporate the lessons learned from projects already underway and from it’s ongoing review of the long-term care infrastructure program.”
Despite repeated attempts to learn from the Ministry of Infrastructure why the Delta project in particular was chosen for deferral, the North Delta Reporter is no closer to getting an answer.
Government still committed to the project, minister says
In a statement provided to the Reporter on Feb. 24, Minister of Infrastructure Bowinn Ma said that, despite fiscal challenges, her government is still committed to building the long-term care homes, however recent years have seen costs skyrocket, with some project estimates coming in at $1.8 million per bed.
“We cannot deliver new beds at the scale that they are required when taxpayers are paying these kinds of rates to build a single room in a facility. That’s why this work to take a step back and rework our plan is so important, to make sure we can sustainably deliver the projects that communities need,” Ma said.
“Although this work will affect the timelines of the long-term care project in Delta, I want to assure residents that this project continues to be a commitment we intend to move forward on.”
Ma acknowledged the need for more long-term care beds, before saying her ministry is “exploring approaches like standard design guidelines, modular construction options, and other ways to deliver high quality facilities in a faster and more cost-effective way.”
She also said the Ministry of Health is working with interest-holders to advance a “new and more feasible” funding model.
“We need to take some time to do this important work and that’s why we’re adjusting the timing of delivery, so we can deliver more long-term care beds with more cost efficiency moving forward,” Ma said.
Ministry refusing to provide project-specific information
The Reporter has repeatedly asked the ministry to provide the estimated per-bed cost of the Delta project, or to confirm our math showing a cost of $900,000 per bed (total cost of $180 million, divided by 200 beds) given that is the measure the government keeps using to justify deferring the seven long-term care projects, but their answers have not provided any clarity, and in some cases have skirted the question altogether.
We also asked if there was a newer, not-publicly-released estimate wherein the government is seeing higher costs than those reported to date for the Delta project. Once again, the ministry did not provide a response that answered the question.
The Reporter has also asked several times whether there is a per-bed cost that the ministry considers a more reasonable price tag for projects of this sort. The ministry has not provided a direct answer to that question either.
Delta LTC project one of the government’s cheapest
In the absence of guidance or additional context from the ministry, the Reporter looked at the costs associated with all seven deferred long-term care projects, as well as the five others that are still proceeding on schedule, using the figures listed in Budget 2026, and compared them using the formula of total cost divided by number of beds.
By that measure, the Delta project is fourth cheapest of the 12 — both in terms of cost per bed and total overall price tag.
In fact, when comparing per-bed costs, four of the seven deferred projects are cheaper than all five of the projects still moving forward. New long-term care centres underway in Richmond ($1.236 million per bed), Vancouver ($1.287 million per bed), Nanaimo ($1.174 million per bed), Colwood ($1.09 million per bed) and Cranbrook ($1.594 million per bed) all cost more.
Government officials, including Minster Ma, have repeatedly used the $1.8 million-per-bed figure to justify deferring the seven projects, however only two of those — Fort St. John and Squamish — reach or exceed that benchmark, costing $1.986 million and $1.845 million per bed, respectively.
Delta, in particular, costs out at half that amount: $900,000 per bed.
Money already spent as site work well underway
It’s worth noting that prep work at the Ladner site has been underway for months, and the province has already spent $15 million on the project, as of Dec. 31, 2025 — a little over eight per cent of the total budget.
Only the still-proceeding St. Vincent’s Heather project in Vancouver and the deferred Abbotsford project have cost the province more: $28 million (about nine per cent of the total budget) and $25 million (almost 12 per cent), respectively.
It’s also worth noting that, of all 12 projects, Delta’s is the only one partially funded by a charitable organization. The Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation committed to providing $18.25 million, launching its largest-ever fundraising campaign when the project was announced in June of 2023. The foundation reached its goal in less than two years, which speaks to the community’s support for the new centre.
Given its apparent low cost relative to other long-term care projects on the government’s books, the work already done on site and the money already spent, the Reporter has asked the Ministry of Infrastructure more than once for an explanation as to why the Delta project was chosen as one those to be deferred.
We have not yet received a direct answer.
Instead, communications staff have provided “background information” saying the Delta project was “re-paced to protect the services people rely on and maintain long term stability across the sector,” before again citing costs of $1.8 million per-bed as “an example of the increasing costs government is seeing when long-term care projects are moving from the approved business case costs to the updated costs once the project goes to the design and tender process.”
No information specific to the Delta project has been shared, despite numerous asks.
Opposition pushes for answers, gets none
Conservative Misty Van Popta, the Opposition critic for infrastructure, asked similar questions during recent Committee of Supply meetings to debate the Ministry of Infrastructure’s budget estimates on Feb. 26 and March 2, and received similarly evasive answers.
Van Popta, the MLA for Langley-Walnut Grove, asked Ma to quantify what the ministry feels is too expensive for a long-term-care bed.
The minister said it is difficult to “draw a line in the sand” as the cost to build each project will differ depending on site conditions, geotechnical conditions, and the mix of the population that the facility is intended to serve.
“There may be differing parking or zoning requirements that impact price, and project sequencing requirements may be different as well — building a green field versus replacing an existing facility and the need to decant and relocate existing services to complete the project,” Ma said, before mentioning project costs in excess of $1.8 million per bed.
“We certainly think that is far too high, particularly in comparison to what other provinces have been able to deliver and different types of projects that we’ve been able to actually deliver more recently.”
Costs brought under control for projects now moving forward
Ma said that with each of the five projects proceeding this fiscal year, the ministry worked with the relevant health authority to “drive down” the per-bed cost to about $1.1 million.
“We think that’s workable and we hope to improve further upon that.”
However, a table on page 68 of the 2026 budget, and the Reporter’s math, both show only two of the five cost out around $1.1 million per bed ($1.09 and $1.17 million). The other three are between $1.24 and nearly $1.59 million.
(Editor’s note: the table on page 68 does not include a per-bed cost for the Richmond long-term care project, but the Reporter calculates it as about $1.24 million.)
Van Popta then asked what the tipping point was that resulted in the government choosing to defer the seven long-term care projects.
Ma replied that cost escalations meant the government could either cancel the projects or pause them while they undergo a “complete rework” to bring the cost per bed down.
“There have been cases where the government has had, I would say, the luxury of proceeding with a project because it was needed in the community despite cost escalations. We are no longer in that place, and hard decisions must be made,” Ma said.
Delta project at the permitting phase
Van Popta later turned her attention to the Delta project in particular, noting City of Delta staff have been working with Fraser Health since March of last year to get the project permitted, and since then have issued a soil deposit permit in May and a plumbing permit to allow for on-site reconfiguration of sanitary storm and water mains in July, with the health authority applying for a building permit in December.
“I think it would be presumptive of Fraser Health to move to a building permit phase if this project wasn’t to be moving ahead,” Van Popta said, before asking Ma whether stopping a project “this far down the line” is appropriate given $15 million has already been spent and other projects not as far along.
“I want the minister to speak about Delta specifically, about why we are halting a project that is significantly underway with three different permits already.”
Ma said the government “had to make very serious decisions about its capital plan” and made the difficult decision to defer the Delta project “understanding the sunk costs.”
Ma said water and sewer have been brought to site and capped and are ready to support future development, noting there are “no other obligations” related to pre-works at the site.
Minister hints at cost estimates not yet made public
Van Popta asked the minister which projects are listed as $1.8 million a bed. Ma referred Van Popta to the publicly-released estimates for the deferred projects (which, as noted earlier in this story, do not include a per-bed cost breakdown).
The minister noted those are early “Class C” estimates, adding that, over the last five years, the trend on all government projects has been that as project costs are refined, “the estimates go up, not down.”
“I can confirm that, for all of the deferred projects, the cost refreshes that have been coming back to government have far exceeded the publicly reported numbers,” Ma said.
Van Popta suggested the not-public cost refresh for the Delta project was “closer in the $1.5 [million] range and could easily be modified to even less,” noting pre-loading at the site needs to sit there for six months, giving government time to redesign the project without halting it.
Ma would not commit to redesigning the project so construction could still start in 2026, saying it is “not possible for me to speculate about the future budgetary decisions of government based on a hypothetical scenario.”
The minister said her ministry will be working with Fraser Health and all other health authorities to drive down the per-bed cost of long-term care facilities by exploring “a number of approaches,” including standardized designs and modular construction technologies.