B.C. Premier Eby defends coffee-with-doctors recruitment after ‘stunt’ accusation
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
KELOWNA – British Columbia Premier David Eby is praising the jolt the province got from a campaign to attract doctors over a cup of coffee despite criticism of wasteful spending from a national taxpayers group.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says B.C. spent $165,000 on a “stunt” for a coffee truck where 1,000 drinks were handed out to health-care workers in the United States, the equivalent of $164 per cup.
Eby says the coffee truck was staffed by Canadian health-care workers who were engaging with U.S. health workers outside of hospitals in cities along the U.S. West Coast.
He says the move was “probably the single most effective marketing initiative” the government has ever had and the province hired more than 500 American health-care workers to come to B.C.
The federation calls it “the most expensive way imaginable to hand out free coffee,” by a province already drowning in debt.
Eby says it costs about $350,000 to train a new doctor and the correct metric of success is not the cost per cup of coffee, but the amount spent for the number of health-care workers recruited.
“We know we’re short on health-care workers. And more than 2,000 American health-care workers have applied for jobs with (B.C.) health authorities. We saw the number jump by 100 in terms of American health-care workers hired in just the last month,” Eby says.
“It was so successful that we are seriously thinking about doing it again.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2026
