BURSTB.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson was at a home in Coquitlam Friday (Oct. 9) to lay out his party’s priorities for seniors in the province.
The party’s plan for seniors includes: reversing the NDP’s changes to the property-tax deferment program, building more long-term care beds, supporting at-home aging, expanding HandyDART, providing free shingles vaccines for seniors, improving access to hearing aids, among other promises.
He said seniors are the people who “built this province and are now feeling the pain of the NDP chaos.”
Property-tax deferment program
B.C.’s current tax deferment program allows eligible B.C. homeowners to defer the current year property taxes. If people are approved, it means B.C.’s Finance Ministry pays the homeowner’s property taxes on their behalf after the tax due date and places a restrictive lien on their property.
In 2025 and previous tax years, simple interest was charged at prime minus two per cent on the deferred tax amount.
That has changed for 2026 and going forward with compound interest charged at prime plus two per cent. Now, interest is charged from the date your property taxes are due or the date you applied to defer, whichever is later.
The Conservatives say they will be reversing the program.
“Seniors will not be taxed out of their homes. They will stay in their communities,” Doerkson said.
In May, seniors advocate Dan Levitt still encouraged B.C. seniors to use the deferment program despite the change.
Building more long-term care beds
Doerkson said there were seven communities told to wait earlier this year when the government “repaced” several health-care projects.
The B.C. Conservatives say that the NDP government “allowed care-home designs to become so expensive by piling on unnecessary rules that some proposed beds reached $1.8 million each.”
READ MORE: B.C. seniors advocate continues to warn of spiralling wait times for long-term care
The party is promising to work with care providers, residents, families and builders to review design requirements, protect safety and quality of care and deliver more affordable beds in attractive, high-quality buildings faster.
The B.C. government cancelled construction contracts for several long-term care homes earlier in the year after stating in Budget 2026 that several projects would be “repaced” due to costs.
Then-Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma blamed estimated budgets that were coming in well over what was originally budgeted. Just before the snap election was called, Ma said the government has been working with the relevant health authorities to “find a path forward” on the projects, including creating standardized designs to reduce the cost per bed.
READ MORE: Burnaby Hospital redevelopment back on after ‘brief’ cancellation
The Conservatives are also promising to advance the Long Term Care Access and Transparency Act to publish monthly regional information on long-term-care waitlists, hospice capacity and home-support access, backed by an annually updated plan to improve access.
Aging at home
The B.C. Conservatives say it would implement Levitt’s recommendation to expand access to home care by supporting seniors who prefer to remain at home with more consumer-directed, publicly-funded choices for quality accredited home care.
A report from Levitt’s office in July 2025 showed that 12.5 per cent of newly admitted long-term care applicants could have been treated at home. It’s higher than the national average of 9.6 per cent, and significantly higher than Ontario’s 5.5 per cent rate or Alberta’s 6.1 per cent — the two provinces where that type of care is free for all.
READ MORE: Seniors’ coalition pushes home support onto B.C. election agenda
B.C. limits free at-home care to those earning less than $30,000 per year. With this care costing as much as $9,000 per year, it can eat up a third of a senior’s total income.
The B.C. NDP says it plans to expand home care to help 5,600 more seniors stay safely in their homes longer.
Providing free shingles vaccines, improving access to hearing aids
Further health-care promises from the B.C. Conservatives include providing free shingles vaccines for seniors and improving access to hearing aids.
The party says that preventing shingles can reduce doctor visits, emergency-room trips, hospital stays and debilitating long-term pain while avoiding preventable health-care costs.
Shingles is a painful skin rash with blisters and is caused by the varicella zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. It can stay in people’s nerve cells and can become active again later in life causing shingles.
Fraser Health says about one-in-three people will get shingles in their lifetime, but people who never had chickenpox won’t get it. Two doses of the vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of getting shingles by more than 90 per cent, the health authority says.
The shingles vaccine, however, is not free in B.C. Each dose costs about $150.
The B.C. NDP says it would make the shingles vaccine free for seniors.
For hearing aids, the Conservatives promise to provide financial assistance so seniors on low, fixed incomes can get the hearing aids they need to remain independent and participate fully in life.
In June, the government announced it was improving access to over-the-counter hearing aids for people aged 18 and older with mild-to-moderate hearing loss.
Levitt welcomed the change, saying it is a “necessary step toward improving access to hearing care for seniors, particularly older people living on fixed incomes.”
– With files from Mark Page