There is a business plan to add a 300-bed long-term care facility to the Langley Memorial Hospital site, but it shows they would cost even more than other projects recently placed on hold by the provincial government.
That’s according to Bowinn Ma, B.C. Minister of Infrastructure, in a May 7 letter responding to a Langley City Council written request for a status update on the promised facility made during the provincial election.
Ma was responding to a April 17 City letter sent by Mayor Nathan Pachal on behalf of council to Health Minister Josie Osborne.
It asked for an update, whether a business plan had been prepared, and for a “confirmed project timeline with milestones, including a projected construction start date and opening date.”
Instead of Osborne, Ma replied, saying it fell under the purview of his ministry.
”The Fraser Health Authority completed a business plan,” Ma wrote.
“On a cost per bed basis, the estimated cost for the Langley long term care was as high or higher than the seven projects that were re-paced in Budget 2026.”
He was referring to a provincial announcement that nine health care projects were being slowed or re-paced in light of a record-setting deficit of $13.3 billion.
In his letter, Ma did not provide a start date for construction of the project, which was estimated to cost between $240 and $450 million, with completion in 2030, back when it was announced during the election.
Mayor Nathan Pachal told the Langley Advance Times it was “obviously disappointing to see that.”
“One thing that we hear pretty clearly in our community [is concern about] health in general, but certainly long-term care as well. I hope the provincial government really looks hard and fast and sees the growing need in communities like Langley City, and maybe it can reconsider.”
Langley City’s letter said Langley Memorial Hospital is currently operating with only 200 long-term care beds, “and an accelerating pace of shortfall of beds, which is wholly insufficient to meet the current and projected demand.”
During the election, the NDP also promised to improve surgical capacity at LMH and to build a new patient tower.