VICTORIA, B.C. – The BC Green Caucus is calling on the NDP government to implement a plan to merge LifeLabs into the provincial health care system, ensuring laboratory and diagnostic services remain public, accessible, and secure for British Columbians.
“Public health dollars should stay in the public system,” said interim BC Green Leader Jeremy Valeriote, MLA for West Vancouver–Sea to Sky. “That means essential services like laboratory testing must be funded and delivered by public institutions.”
Quest Diagnostics, the American-owned company that acquired LifeLabs in 2024, is profiting off the delivery of essential health services and holding sensitive health information about British Columbians. High-profile data breaches, like the one involving 23andMe, have shown how vulnerable personal data can be when it’s in the hands of private corporations.
“LifeLabs provides an essential, non-optional service. Yet there’s been no public discussion about how to safeguard the data it holds, or what would happen if the company were to fail,” said Valeriote. “These are massive risks it seems the government is ignoring.”
In addition to these concerns, LifeLabs workers are in a labour dispute and are currently taking job action over inadequate and unsafe staffing levels, which are directly impacting patient care. LifeLabs employees are paid significantly less than their hospital counterparts with lab assistants earning $4 less per hour and medical lab technologists earning $5 less.
“LifeLabs employees are underpaid, understaffed, and overworked,” said Valeriote. “These workers provide an essential public service. They deserve to be treated with respect and paid fairly for the critical work they do. Let’s bring these workers back to the public service where they belong. Why are we supplying a profit margin to a private company providing a public service using taxpayers’ money?”
If the provincial government is serious about reducing the province’s dependence on U.S. suppliers, it should start with our essential public services.
“The BC government must act in the best interests of British Columbians,” said Valeriote. “That means keeping our health care public, protecting sensitive data, and ensuring that the delivery of essential services is not driven by profit.”
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Media contact
Ryan Hook
Press Secretary
B.C. Green Caucus
+1 250-882-6187 | ryan.hook@leg.bc.ca