 My name is Adrian Diggs. I'm BC's Minister of Health. It's exciting to be at SFU Surrey today. This is such a beautiful building and a great place, high up there, and and I want to start and I'm just I'm generally fired up but I am unbelievably fired up about today's announcement, which I think is going to help our province for five, ten, fifty years a hundred years before us. So I am pleased to be here today. Pleased to be here on the territories of the Coast Salish people, including the the the Kwantli, the Kwantlin, the Katesi, the Semiamu, the Kokwitlam, the Kekait, and of course the Salasim's First Nations. It's good to be here. My friends from the First Nations Health Authority, Richard Jock is here. It's good to see you, Richard. It's so good to have you here. I'm grateful to be at SFU Surrey, the hub of a world-class university that makes us proud and their students and faculty and staff make us proud every day. I want to first of all present to you who is going to be speaking today. Of course, and first will be Premier David E.B., Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Training, Ann Kang, SFU President and Vice Chancellor, Joy Johnson. How about that? SFU Master of Public Health Student, Sherry Sandu. No pressure. No pressure. I just want you to know it's going to be fantastic. We've got other people here, my colleagues from the Legislature, Surrey MLA's, fierce advocates for health care for the people of Surrey. Jigroup Raar is here. Ginny Sims is here. Gary Begg is here. Bruce Ralston is here in spirit. And since today is so much part of what Bruce has advocated for this place for so long, we think about his role today. It's great to have the new Mayor of Surrey here, Brenda Locke. Hi, Brenda. Your worship. I'm supposed to call you your worship, right? We're going to get used to that. But we can still say Adrian and Brenda, okay? Absolutely. So it's wonderful to be here. This is a great day. It's a great announcement. It's my honor to introduce Premier David E.B. Well, good morning, everybody. Nice to see so many people here for today's announcement. I'd like to start by joining Minister Dix and acknowledging the Coast Salish people, the Semiamu, Kukwetlam, Kwanlin, Kekaiten, Tsuasa Nations. It is wonderful to be here on SFU's campus. Thank you to the dedication to all of the people who the Health Minister mentioned for your role in making life better for all British Columbians. Five years ago, our government was elected to protect public health care and make sure it delivers for British Columbians. And every day since then, we've worked hard to improve care for people, building and improving hospitals across the province, opening urgent and primary care centers for British Columbians, hiring thousands of nurses, bringing 4,600 health workers back into the public sector, all accomplished under the leadership of our remarkable health minister who guided our province through the worst public health crisis in memory. But we have so much more to do. The pandemic definitely exposed the challenges we face in our health care system. And today, too many British Columbians are struggling to find a family doctor. Too many are stuck waiting for care on a list or waiting in a wait room of an understaffed emergency room. I've been traveling the province and I hear it wherever I go. I hear it at home, too. My wife, Kaylee, was a nurse and is now a family doctor. And when we go out in the community, people ask if she's taking new patients. We know about these challenges firsthand. And they're not unique to British Columbia. These are challenges that are being felt by people across Canada. But as we've seen in other provinces, some believe the answer is to abandon our universal public health care system and to allow those who have money to buy their way to the front of the line. Of course, that doesn't solve the line. That just changes who's at the front of the line. As your premier, I reject that approach. We cannot privatize our way to better health care or cut services and expect there to be more doctors and more care. We couldn't afford that approach five years ago and we sure can't afford it today. If the pandemic taught us one thing, it's that if we're going to make ground on this, we have to do it together through our public health care system. Now, I'm determined to take action on the big challenges we face together. That's housing, public safety, and it's certainly the challenge of health care, making sure everybody has access to a family doctor. That's why we're acting to train, recruit, and retain family doctors now, today, and train the health workforce we're going to need for the future. A month ago, you will have seen we introduced a new way of paying and recognizing our family doctors, encouraging people to participate in our health care system as family doctors delivering the care that families expect. It's one of the most important steps that we can take to attract new doctors to family practice. We're expanding the existing medical school at UBC to train more physicians to deliver care for British Columbians as part of our comprehensive health workforce strategy. And yesterday, a really important announcement, we've got people in this province with medical training who are ready to deliver care in this province who can't because their licenses are not being recognized. A really important announcement yesterday with the College of Physicians and Surgeons to fast track those people to deliver care. We can't have them on the sidelines while families wait for care. Now today, a really important announcement for Surrey. A new medical school right here on SFU Surrey campus represents a significant step towards training the doctors of tomorrow. I'm pleased to announce the hiring of an interim dean and an investment of $4.9 million in startup funding for the new medical school. The interim dean is Dr. Roger Strasser who will provide strategic leadership and planning around the establishment of the new medical school. He has a record of getting things done. He was the founding dean and CEO of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, the most recently accredited medical school in Canada. He's a recognized leader in the development of health professional education. When the new SFU medical school is up and running, this will be the first new medical school in western Canada in 50 years. Taken together with very exciting news. Taken together with the expansion of seats at UBC, this will mean important new capacity at universities in British Columbia to train the doctors of tomorrow. As we take immediate steps to make sure that the doctors who are here today can practice in our hospitals and communities across the province. I believe that British Columbia should be a place where everyone can build a good life, where you can afford a good place to live, where you get the health care you need, when and where you need it, and where you have the training opportunities to pursue your dreams. And frankly, especially today, if your dream includes potentially being a doctor someday. That's the BC we all believe in. Let's keep building it together. Thank you very much. Wow. Well, we've been, some people in this place have been wanting to do this for a long time. And I'm one of them. So I'm pretty happy today. And I think one of the people who has been instrumental in making this happen. I won't say that having a Minister of Advanced Education from Burnaby is good for SFU. I will say having Ann Kang as Minister of Advanced Education has made a huge difference for people across our province and for this project. And it's my honor to introduce her to speak now. Hello, everyone. And good afternoon. It is so great to see so many students here. It is so wonderful to be here at SFU. I'm just so excited. And as I walked in the door, I could feel the excitement in this room. My name is Ann Kang, and I am the proud Minister for Advanced Education and Skills Training, and I'm just so proud of the work that SFU has been doing. I'd like to recognize that we are in the traditional territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the KZ Kwantlen and Semi Amu people. And I express my deep gratitude to them for allowing us to host this announcement here on their land. I'd also like to share my gratitude with Premier David E. as well as Health Minister Adrian Dix, as well as with SFU President Joy Johnson, and all my colleagues here who has been a strong advocate and strong champion for this project. And for everyone here in your efforts in these exciting next steps for SFU's new medical school. I also especially would like to extend that gratitude to Dr. Roger Strasser as well for providing his incredible expertise and strategic leadership in planning of this new medical school. It takes a team to get here, and we're all here working together collaboratively on this. We're focused on training and educating a new generation of healthcare workers to support families in BC now and well into the future. This is an exciting and significant step forward today, and the new SFU Medical School in Surrey will focus on training more doctors prepared to meet the healthcare needs of BC families. Reciprocity, cultural safety, humility will be embedded throughout the school along with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis knowledge system and perspectives. Students will be able to learn, yes, awesome, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis perspectives. This is going to be very inclusive, and students will be able to learn the team-based primary care settings that are patient-centered. This environment will enable students to become primary care providers and specialists that can deliver quality care across communities and all populations across British Columbia. This work that we're doing will help meet the growing demand for physicians in British Columbia over the longer term and train the next generation of doctors. This adds to the recent good news we have on training more doctors, more nurses, more allied health professionals, including 322 more allied health professionals across public post-secondary institutions throughout BC, and 602 new nursing seats across 17 post-secondary institutions in BC, and we're taking real action to solve the healthcare challenges here in BC, and we recognize that students are the future of medicine, and we're investing in the training and educating the new generation of healthcare workers to support families in BC well into the future. I'd like to take this opportunity again to thank everyone for all the support and hard work that all of you have put in. I know we ran and hit the ground with our feet running, and we are still running. This is truly a collaborative effort, and I want to recognize that, because as we work together, we are making moves forward to effectively boost our healthcare system and our health workforce. So thank you so much, everyone, for joining us in this very exciting endeavor, and I look forward to our future together. Thank you. Thank you, Minister Kang. Ann, it's a pretty exciting day, you know? It wasn't so long ago, you know, we were having coffee about this, and you're riding at Burnaby, so there you go. It's wonderful, and thank Minister Ann Kang for her exceptional work on this project. I want to introduce over my left shoulder, he's always on my left, he's one of the few people always on my left, Minister Harry Baines, the Labor Minister, the MLA for Surrey Newton, there he is. You know, perhaps as if you will have a program in MC training, and then I'll remember to introduce Harry next time at the beginning, and my friend Anita Huberman from the Surrey Board of Trade who's with us as well demonstrates the support of this whole community for the healthcare needs of people in Surrey and their essential role in all elements of Surrey life. Obviously, as Minister Kang has said, this is a collaborative effort, and it's my honor now to introduce one of the key players in that effort, Joy Johnson, the President and Vice Chancellor of Simon Fraser University. Premier Ebe, Ministers, Guests, this is a fantastic day for British Columbia and for Simon Fraser University, and I want to say it is so great to see so many students, faculty, staff, Board of Governors, members, partners, community, and government representatives joining us here today. I am so pleased to hear about this announcement and the fact that we are moving forward together. I want to welcome all of you to SFU's Surrey campus. I too want to acknowledge the land that we're on. We're privileged to be on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Kwantlen, Katzi, Semayamo, Kukwitlam, Keikite, Tuas and First Nations, and I also want to recognize the Métis and Inuit communities who call this region home. From our very beginning, more than half a century ago, SFU has worked to make life better for the communities that we serve. SFU's Surrey campus is a tribute to that vision. On this campus, students study to be leaders in clean tech and sustainable engineering, helping to create a brighter future. On this campus, students are learning to be leaders, working on cutting-edge areas such as quantum computing, agri-tech and public health. And through community partnerships of all kinds, our faculty, our staff and our students are making a difference for the people of Surrey and beyond. For these and for so many other reasons, we are proud to call SFU Canada's engaged university. And we are delighted to be home to British Columbia's new medical school. I'm going to tell you it will be a medical school with a distinct purpose. A medical school that focuses on the primary care needs of diverse communities across the province, particularly underserved populations. It will be a medical school that embeds indigenous ways of knowing and being and community-embedded, culturally relevant health care. It will be a medical school that serves everyone in BC, educating the next generation of doctors and communities throughout the province. With indigenous partners, health authorities and the community, including our key partners Fraser Health and the First Nations Health Authority, we've been hard at work building toward this vision. Today's announcement is another important milestone on that journey. Our new interim dean that you've heard about, Dr. Roger Strasser, is a leader in the field. Dr. Strasser is someone with enormous experience in Canada and around the world delivering socially accountable medical education. And so among his many academic and professional accomplishment, Dr. Strasser also is a former member of the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools. So we are in good hands. We're lucky to have him and we're extremely excited to welcome him to Simon Fraser University. So I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our new Premier for demonstrating his support for the new medical school and to the Minister of Health and Advanced Education and Skills Training for the vision and tenacity for moving it forward. They are joined by people across this community and province who believe that strong public health is a right shared by all. A responsibility that we owe to each other. And I can promise you that everyone at SFU will continue working as hard as we can to help fulfill that promise. So thank you ever so much for being here today. Thank you very much, Joy. I think I get used to this mask thing after a while. Thank you. I wanted to, I know that the leadership of SFU is so much part of this will play, I think, such an important role in this part of our healthcare system. I appreciate, in particular, the President's leadership in this matter and all the work she's done. Now we come to our final speaker. There's no pressure here at all, Sherry. No pressure at all. But we have, I think, at this university such a dynamic and remarkable student body, students who are leading our province now and will lead our province for decades to come. And so it's my honour to introduce SFU Masters of Public Health students, Sherry Sandu, to say a few words. Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Sherry Sandu and I'm honoured to be speaking on behalf of the many young British Columbians who share the same dream as me, to serve our community. We have witnessed and endured a primary health – David wasn't around yet. Premier wasn't around. And it's not remarkable. It is remarkable, I think, and important that it's here in Sherry that it'll be headquarters. Sherry is going to be our largest community but is already the centre of so much dynamism in BC life, economic and cultural and political dynamism in this community. What's happening here is profound and remarkable. And having this medical school here will be part of a vibrant community that's going to make a huge difference for future generations in our province. We're so proud, I'm so proud of our Premier and our Minister of Advanced Education for pursuing and making this proposal happen. So proud of SFU and so proud of the people of Sherry who have done exceptional things in a time of pandemic and healthcare to support one another, to help one another. We have, at different times, had to stand up extraordinary care in this community and our healthcare workers and our people in this community have made an enormous difference every day. This promises an even brighter future for Sherry. Having a medical school here, having our second hospital here, having more long-term care here, increasing primary care here, all of those things promise a better future. But today is a day of real celebration. I want to thank you all for coming. And now we're at the most exciting part of our presentation today. I'm going to invite Premier Evie back to the stage to take, for the interactive portions, to take questions from the media. Premier Evie. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. A reminder to media on the line, please press star one to enter the queue. You'll be limited to one question and one follow-up. Please remember to take yourself off mute ahead of asking your question. We're going to start going on the line today with Richard Sisman from Global News. Go ahead, Richard. I know this wasn't your promise, but when this was done in the 2020 election, the commitment was the medical school could be having graduates by 23-24 and that got amended to being open by 23-24. Now it's delayed to 2026. Can you explain why we're seeing this delay and are you worried that this means we won't get new doctor's facility into the system until potentially 2029 or 2030? Well, as you heard, this is the first new medical school in western Canada in 50 years. There are considerable logistics behind setting up a new medical school and doing it properly. And so that work is underway and we're going as quickly as we can, but it's important for British Columbians to recognize this medical school is not going to solve the urgent issues we face today. This is a long-term investment in a secure public health care system that works for everybody in our province. We have taken steps to open spaces in the short term at UBC, more than 100 residency and family doctor spaces, an announcement yesterday about getting those people with international experience, international training off the sidelines and into our hospitals, into our communities, delivering care as quickly as possible. This is one part of an array of strategies to respond to the health care crisis the British Columbians are facing right now. Richard, would you like to take a follow-up? Yes, by the time we hit, first off, what's your estimation for when we'll actually have graduates from the school and how many? And you mentioned it's not the full six, but by 2030 the estimations are that 40% of doctors will have retired. What percentage of that do you hope to make up through this new school? So this announcement today is in part around funding related to a business case, the planning around the number of students and the delivery of the education work that's going to happen at this important brand new medical school here in Surrey. And so that work is underway. Our understanding and expectation is that students will be commencing in 26 and graduating with the first doctors coming to the system by 30. And it's important to know that when we're looking for the doctors of the future, it's through the medical school we have right now at UBC. It's through the internationally trained graduates, the people who have experience who are outside of the system. We need those folks on the front lines of the health care system immediately. This is about positioning our province, making sure for the long term we're delivering those health care professionals that we know that our province is going to need. We're growing incredibly rapidly. We added 100,000 people to our province last year. We're going to set another record this year of people moving to British Columbia. This is part of how we make sure we're going to have the health care professionals to deliver for those folks who are coming to BC. Just a reminder, there's media on the line to press star one to enter the queue. For the next question, we're going to come back to the floor here with Francis Plurid from Radio Canada. Go ahead, Francis. Hi Premier. My question would be for Minister Dix in French. So you got a bit of a break. Bonjour, Monsieur le ministre. Il y a deux ans vous annoncez ce projet. On va accueillir les premiers étudiants. On parle plutôt de 2026 maintenant. Qu'est-ce qu'il explique les délais et combien de métiers on veut former à terme? Franchement, c'est pas un délai. J'ai été le chef de Nouveau Parti démocratique en 2011, 2012, 2013, et j'ai présenté la nécessité d'avoir une deuxième école pour les nouveaux, des nouvelles médecins dans la province. La chose qui était entre nous et une réussite, c'était le gouvernement de l'époque. Donc on avait un gouvernement qui s'opposait à ce programme, à SFU, à cet effort, à ces ambitions. Donc si on avait nos gouvernements à l'époque, j'ai perdu l'élection, bien entendu. On aurait une école ici aujourd'hui, mais cela est le passé. On va avoir une école pour les prochaines 50 ans, 60 ans, 100 ans, et on commence aujourd'hui avec un nouveau dien de cette école qui va, et je pense, une transformation de l'éducation pour des médecins dans la province. Le rôle de UBC est important aussi, 128 nouveaux sièges à UBC, ce qui est quand même un accroissement important. On a déjà augmenté des sièges à UBC, mais ceci c'est quelque chose de différent et d'important. Donc on fait un tas de choses pour ajouter et de remplacer les médecins dans la province actuellement. On a fait, on peut faire une liste de 10 ou 11 mesures, on a 75 mesures dans notre plan de résource humaine dans la province, et ceci est un de ces mesures, et c'est une mesure importante. C'est un moment important pour l'histoire de la santé publique en Colombie Britannique. Le rôle de SFU, à l'avenir, va être quelque chose d'important en ajoutant le rôle important du BC et d'autres institutions dans la province, y compris quant aux politiques du université qui va jouer un rôle important ici à Surie, qu'on va avoir un deuxième hôpital dans cette ville. Combien de médecins ont compteformé lorsque le programme sera opérationnel? Oui, mais ceci est le développement du cap, mais on va avoir les premiers en 2026. On va avoir de nouveaux renseignements alors que le Dr Strasser fait son travail. Merci. For the next question, we'll go back to the line to Benjus Hedgen from CTV News. Go ahead, Bender. Hi there, senior. I understand you still need to figure out sort of how many students are going to go to school, where they'll physically be, the curriculum. You have hired an intern dean. Can you talk about what else has been done since 2020 and what still needs to be done in advance of getting students into the classroom? Work has been underway on a business plan for the medical school. Dr Strasser has been recruited and, as I announced today, hired to take on that role. This funding will support Dr Strasser in his work in recruiting the dean for the school. Key expert personnel that will assist in developing the curriculum, setting up a project office for the new medical school and really bringing this project to life. It's a very exciting time for SFU and for British Columbians looking at their first new medical school, the first new medical school in western Canada in 50 years. Bender, do you have a follow-up? I do. And I'm also wondering, senior, in the answer to Richard, you said that the students who are graduating wouldn't necessarily help with the health care crisis now. I'm kind of having a difficult time understanding why that would be. What are they going to do if not help ease some of the woes we're seeing in the health care system? Yeah, perhaps I can clarify. The school is not open yet and there's a health care crisis that British Columbians are facing now. They need support in hospitals and family doctors immediately. I feel that urgency from them. It will be some years before doctors come to this new medical school so this is medium and long-term response to the challenges we face. In the immediate term, there was a really important announcement yesterday about making sure that we're not leaving any medical skills unused in our province. That we don't have doctors, nurses and other health professionals on the sidelines when British Columbians are waiting in emergency rooms. So making sure that the credentials that the expertise that those folks have are recognized by our medical system was what that announcement is about yesterday. That's about the immediate term, making sure we have people now for British Columbians in crisis that need that health care. And so that is, that's the distinction. We're doing work that will help people today and we're doing work that will help people tomorrow. And it's all part of our work under the health human resources strategy that Minister Dix has been leading, making sure that we have the resources, not just for the immediate term for support for health care workers who are coming out of the pandemic and they're tired and they're stressed, making sure they have the support they need, but also for tomorrow for population growth for centers like Surrey, a center of dynamism and excitement that's growing rapidly, making sure that there's health care here in the future to support our public health care system. For the last question this afternoon, we're going to come back to the floor for Pramit Kamra from Red FM. Good afternoon, Premier. This is Pramit from Red FM. And first of all, I would like to congratulate you on the today's announcement and the yesterday's announcement as well. These are wonderful, especially in the medical facility. My question is, as you have mentioned that these are medium and long term goals which you are working on in your government. And you have mentioned practice ready assessment program for the doctors who will be placed in BC. What about those people who are already in this profession, who were already doctor but now have moved to different professions because of the lack of these facilities to come back into this profession? Will there be any assessment program for them as well? Yes, yesterday we announced that in less than two years we are tripling the practice ready assessment program. This is where if you have medical training from another place, that you can come medical experience from another place, you come, you get assessed and you're able to identify what additional training you may need or what you're able to do and be licensed for within our existing medical system. But also there was a really important announcement about physicians that have experience from other jurisdictions, international medical graduates that have experience that will be able to start work right away. Working in teams, working with other physicians, providing support. Now they'll work under the supervision of a licensed physician, but they'll be able to start work right away. And so there are a couple of different pathways, there were actually three different pathways discussed yesterday, that internationally trained and internationally experienced physicians and medical professionals can use. And this is in addition to the work that we've done, Minister Dix led around nurses so that internationally trained nurses can more rapidly come into our healthcare system be assessed and provide that support that we need. So to all medical professionals with training and experience, and I was in Chilliwack and I was hosted, when I was touring the province, I was hosted at the home of a couple, the husband is a surgeon, the wife is a dentist. They both work for the local school board. For folks that have that medical experience, that medical training, I want them to know that we are opening the pathways for you to get to work to provide support in BC's healthcare system. And if you're interested in coming back, we would love to have you working in the healthcare system. Do you have a follow up for me? I do. Numbers indicate that in normal scenario, like in BC right now, we're taking care of around 1,000 to 1,200 patients. Are we doing anything to lessen their burden so that they can attend the people better and can provide good medical facilities which they are entitled to? Yes, one of the pieces around yesterday's announcement with these physicians that have medical experience but still need to work under the supervision of, for example, a family doctor or a doctor in a hospital setting is when they come on and they work with those doctors, they can increase the number of patients that that doctor takes. We also have team-based care initiatives where with nurse practitioners and nurses and others, we can have family doctors taking on even more patients and really focusing on what they were trained on with the other health professionals supporting them, working on what they were trained on and using everybody to the maximum skill so that the majority of so that as many British Columbians as possible can access a family doctor we need to extend those physicians and their abilities through partnering them up with other health professionals. It's a key part of the work we're doing. And this concludes our question and answer period. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks very much everybody. Congratulations.