'people are struggling': b.c. government's lower-paid workers are losing the cost-of-living battle
11 minute read
nurses march for safer working condition in downtown vancouver, on wednesday, may 28, 2025.
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as b.c.’s population continues to age, care aide chena binns warns the province not to underpay or understaff the professionals who look after the growing number of senior citizens.
“when you’re a (hospital) patient, you want to be sure that you’ve got the staff there who are going to be able to care for you. and recruitment is a problem. retention is a problem,” said binns, who works in long-term care for vancouver coastal health.
“we know we have less workers, less people getting involved in health care, and we need to somehow fix the system.”
binns is one of 400,000 unionized provincial employees represented by more than 180 labour contracts that expire this year. unions and the government are in collective bargaining, seeking an agreement on workers’ future pay and workplace conditions.
her opinion that now is not the time to cap spending on salaries illustrates the government’s quandary: the ndp has signalled there is little money to boost wages, partly due to the high deficit and an economy bruised by u.s. tariff threats.
but unions, who helped the ndp win three straight elections, argue the only way to fix b.c.’s shortage of teachers, nurses and other essential workers is to offer them competitive salaries so they can afford the high cost of living here.
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binns is a member of the hospital employees union, which represents about 51,000 workers, including x-ray assistants, pharmacy technicians, housekeeping and food workers. two recent surveys found two-thirds of the heu membership work in short-staffed facilities at least once a week — some say daily — and more than 40 per cent fear their housing is at risk because they don’t make enough money.
wages, workload, staffing levels, and safety were identified as top bargaining concerns by heu members. addressing those issues is important because staff in hospitals and care homes provide vital work, binns argued, including the care aides she has worked alongside for 26 years.
“you are getting (patients) up in the morning, getting them ready for breakfast … the toileting, and all their daily needs,” said binns, who is a heu shop steward.
“and the home support is your care aides that are coming in and caring for your mom and dad two, three times a day. if there’s no care aide, who’s going to be doing that?”
chena binns is a vancouver coastal health care aide.
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the 2025 contract negotiations are expected to be challenging. will government be fiscally cautious to conserve money, or go further into debt to ensure there are enough educational assistants in classrooms, child protection workers to help struggling families, and lab technicians in hospitals?
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depending on how these talks proceed, some union leaders are not ruling out the possibility of labour unrest.
a strike is possible “if we get an agreement that doesn’t address the affordability crisis,” warned paul finch, president of the b.c. general employees’ union.
more than 34,000 bcgeu members work for the civil service, which means they are employed directly by ministries, including in social assistance, corrections and administrative services. a quarter of those workers, finch said, are working a second or third job to make ends meet.
“people are struggling, and so we do need a contract that addresses their immediate needs,” he said.
“there’s a high degree of frustration. we’re in a very difficult round of negotiations and we’re not seeing significant movement.”
the finance ministry, in a statement, said negotiations with all unions are underway and did not directly answer a question about the possibility they could fail and workers could go on strike.
“we have full confidence in the parties at the table and their commitment to reach negotiated settlements,” the ministry said.
finance minister brenda bailey declined to be interviewed.
how many people government employs and how much they earn has a direct impact on taxpayers, as total compensation right now is $53 billion — or 60 per cent of the provincial budget.
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of the nearly 600,000 government employees, three-quarters — or 450,000 people — are unionized. each one per cent pay bump for all union members is estimated to add $419 million to the provincial budget.
so, how can taxpayers make sense of the arguments made by the two sides in these labour negotiations?
the newest edition of the vancouver sun’s public sector salary database provides some insight into the numbers the government and the unions will be using as ammunition.
the database contains the names and wages of nearly 170,000 workers who made at least $75,000 in 2023-2024 at approximately 100 public sector agencies, including the provincial government, school districts, health authorities, municipal police departments, and other agencies that use taxpayers’ money to fund their payrolls. (you can search the database here.)
it shows the number of provincial employees who make $75,000 and over has doubled since the ndp took power in 2017, and the amount spent on those salaries has soared to $11.6 billion, from $4.7 billion.
the median salary of those captured in our database has grown to $103,000, from $88,300 eight years ago.
the government argues they’ve done a good job of increasing wages and hiring more workers. unions, though, disagree.
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the health sciences association surveyed its 23,000 union members in april, and found nearly one third are thinking of quitting their jobs in the next two years, citing low pay and high workloads due to staff shortages. most, though, said a significant salary bump would convince them to stay.
the union represents more than 70 different types of health workers, including lab techs, radiation therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians, social workers and pharmacists.
hsa president sarah kooner said her members are “burning out” caused by record shortages of staff, and that “patients across b.c. are already facing canceled surgeries and long waits for test results and treatment.”
kooner said she’s hopeful to achieve “reasonable” pay increases during bargaining. “we appreciate that these are volatile times, and it’s very challenging for the bc government. but we must not lose sight of the need to ensure that the health care system keeps functioning.”
paul finch is the president of the b.c. general employees’ union.
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as postmedia reported last week, labour leaders say the percentage of non-unionized, management workers has grown faster than the percentage of unionized front-line workers since 2017. finch argued, therefore, that the salary jumps identified in the database do not entirely reflect his members’ paycheques.
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talks ‘relatively fruitless’
the bcgeu would like this imbalance addressed in a new contract, to replace the one that expired march 31, but he said the province has not offered concrete solutions.
“talks have been relatively fruitless. we’ve been in negotiations for several weeks and government has not meaningfully moved on any of the main non-monetary proposals,” he said.
when it comes to monetary issues, such as wages, the province has told the bcgeu it is unable to discuss those until the end of june.
for the last contracts, the bcgeu and most other unions agreed to an average increase over three years of 14 per cent. but finch doesn’t want to use that as a carbon copy for these talks because, he said, high inflation wiped out those gains.
“over the last three years, our contract fell behind inflation by 1.5 per cent,” he said. “we’re sinking.”
when asked about addressing management-worker ratios, and other bcgeu concerns such as reducing the number of contracted-out workers, the ministry said negotiations will be done at the table, not in public.
postmedia asked the finance ministry if the 2025 talks will be difficult given the affordability and staffing concerns of unionized workers at a time when tariff uncertainty is putting more pressure on the ballooning deficit.
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it responded: “as we work to reduce government spending and grow the economy to insulate the province from global trade uncertainty, government must balance the costs of providing sustainable public services with other spending commitments that will improve the economic future for everyone.”
when asked about wages, the finance ministry said the 14 per cent salary boost negotiated in 2022 helped with recruitment of new government employees, but acknowledged b.c. still has a “significant” shortage of workers.
the sun’s database of provincial employees making at least $75,000 shows the median salary for people who work in health jumped 18 per cent, to $106,000 in 2024 from $90,000 in 2017. but lynn bueckert, heu secretary-business manager, said her members are not captured in those numbers because the majority make less than $75,000.
the heu has not tabled any wage proposals yet in the negotiating process nor has the government, but it will be a top issue for her members, bueckert said. a recent survey found more than 40 per cent believe they are less financially secure than two years ago.
another key issue is working short-staffed and how that contributes to workplace injuries. in 2023, bueckert said, the number of heu members hurt on the job was equivalent to “taking 1,800 workers out of the health care system for an entire year.”
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she described the talks so far as respectful and remains optimistic an agreement can be reached with the ndp.
“i believe that the government wants to support health care. what that’s going to look like at the end of the day, i guess we’ll see.”
health minister josie osborne declined to be interviewed, and a statement from her ministry would not comment on negotiations.
in general, the ministry said there is a “global shortage of health workers” and noted it has started a program to recruit more entry-level workers, such as care aides and mental health workers, in care homes, home-support services and hospitals.
the ministry said it created a resource guide in 2024 that aims to reduce health worker injuries, and an organization made up of employers and unions focuses on the prevention of injuries.
nurses at ‘breaking point’
nurses are also enduring an increasing amount of violence on the job at a time when the province is short an estimated 5,000 nurses, said adriane gear, president of the b.c. nurses’ union.
“nurses are at a breaking point,” she said.
b.c. nurses’ union president adriane gear.
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while nurses recognize the fiscal challenges b.c. is facing with the deficit and tariffs, they want a new contract that improves workplace conditions and ensures there is enough staff to maintain safe nurse-to-patient ratios, gear said.
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“to have a strong economy … you also need to have strong public services,” she said. “(nurses) need a collective agreement that’s going to respect them.”
health authorities have spent “an exorbitant amount of money” on private nurses to fill shortages, gear said. instead, she argued, they should make it economically worthwhile for nurses to live and work in b.c., especially when alberta offers a higher wage while having a lower cost of living.
the bcnu has heard concerns that some of their benefits are too expensive, such as for physiotherapy and massage, but she warned now isn’t the time to “nickel and dime” nurses.
“i can tell you that my members want nothing to do with that. and that is something that they’ve indicated they would strike over,” gear said. “nurses are subject to abuse and violence and very poor working conditions, and now you want to chip away at our benefits?”
in response to nurses’ concerns about patient violence, the health ministry said more hospital security guards have been hired for “high-risk facilities,” including emergency departments and mental-health units.
the government has also pledged to set nurse-to-patient ratios to improve safety, although gear would like more urgency to fulfil this promise.
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the ministry said it is hiring nurses at a faster pace than other provinces with incentives such as “fair pay,” and by easing credentials for american nurses and others who are foreign-trained.
when asked about the disproportionate increase of non-union staff compared to front-line nurses or care aides, the ministry’s statement said health authorities are focused on “redirecting costs from administrative areas to front-line services wherever possible.”
prioritize important services
at metro vancouver’s 14 school districts, our database shows the median salary for employees making at least $75,000 was $102,000 in 2024, up from $87,000 in 2017.
past collective agreements have boosted the pay of more teachers above $75,000, but the higher median salaries in the database could be due to districts hiring more non-union staff in coordinator and assistant superintendent roles, said clint johnston, president of the b.c. teachers federation.
b.c. is trying to hire more than 900 teachers and nearly 600 education assistants. johnston said his union has made proposals to address those shortages. he said contract talks are “going reasonably well” but government hasn’t revealed yet how much money is on the table.
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other key collective-bargaining issues for teachers include affordability “to make sure our members can live in the communities that they work,” as well as class size and workload.
although johnston said he knows money is tight, he believes this is an opportunity for government to prioritize important services, similar to how support programs were rolled out during the covid pandemic.
“they did that by spending in the right places, and yet creating some deficits. but it was what the people needed, and we think that might be what they need to do,” he said of the contract talks.
“you reprioritize by ensuring that you’re spending those valuable dollars in the best areas. we think education is one of them.”
when asked what the province is doing to address teachers’ concerns about class sizes, classroom supplies and learning-support staff, the education ministry said in a statement that these are “bargaining-related items” that will be discussed during negotiations.
“the province has full confidence in the parties at the table,” the statement said.
additionally, the ministry said it has created two funds for districts to hire more teachers and support staff in schools, and is offering incentives to boost hiring in rural and remote communities.
b.c. nurses march for safer working condition in vancouver in may, before contract negotiations.
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workload, pay and how to retain staff are key issues facing employers across the country, said james valcke, director of research and strategy for viewpoints research, which does polling to track the sentiments of public sector unions and the public.
canadians have many horror stories about waiting times and other problems in the health-care system, but they rarely complain about the staff who provide the services, said vickers.
“the public is on the side of the front-line workers who are working to get it done,” he said.
care aides struggle, though, to provide all the daily care their patients require, largely because of the greater needs of a population that is living longer and facing more mental-health and substance-use problems, said binns.
increased workload can lead to constraints in care, and that’s emotionally difficult for care aides when they spend so much time with residents that they become a de facto part of their families, she added.
and some of her colleagues “are absolutely underpaid,” making below vancouver’s recommended living wage of $27 an hour.
those are some of the issues that binns hopes will be addressed in the contract negotiations.
“we do need to think about the future of our health,” she said. “and you need to have a reason for people to come and join the team in health care.”
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