Legislative Record

Seniors and Rural Health

As Critic for Seniors and Rural Health, Brennan focused on the practical experience of patients and families rather than announcements alone. His work included long-term care, rural and remote access, emergency services, primary care, diagnostics, workforce pressures, hospice and health-system accountability.

• Long-term-care waitlists, bed capacity and alternate-level-of-care pressures.
• Rural emergency-department closures and staffing shortages.
• Primary-care attachment and access.
• Diagnostic and specialist wait times.
• Hospice and end-of-life care.
• Healthcare workforce recruitment and retention.

Long Term Care Access and Transparency Act — Bill M232

Brennan introduced Bill M232 to require public reporting on long-term-care waitlists, wait times and system capacity, together with a provincial plan to improve timely access to care.

The bill advanced through second reading unanimously and moved to committee stage.

Charleigh Pollock, Brineura and the EDRD process

Brennan advocated publicly for continued access to Brineura for Charleigh Pollock, a Vancouver Island child living with Batten disease, after provincial funding for her treatment was put at risk.

The case became part of a broader push for reform of British Columbia's Expensive Drugs for Rare Diseases process, including greater transparency, clearer timelines and a more patient-centred approach to high-cost treatments for very small patient populations.

Brennan continued meeting with rare-disease stakeholders and raising concerns about how the provincial system evaluates and communicates decisions involving life-altering therapies.

Capacity, wait times and transparency

Long-term care was a central part of Brennan's seniors portfolio. He repeatedly raised the growth of waitlists, the number of patients occupying acute-care beds while waiting for placement, workforce pressures and the need for substantially more capacity as British Columbia's population ages.

Access should not depend on geography.

Brennan's rural-health work focused on emergency-department closures, primary-care access, diagnostic delays, healthcare workforce shortages and the difference between provincial announcements and the services patients can actually access in smaller communities.

ICBC Enhanced Care review

Brennan served as Deputy Chair of the Special Committee to Review Provisions of the Insurance (Vehicle) Act. The committee heard from injured British Columbians, healthcare professionals, legal stakeholders, brain-injury advocates and families affected by the Enhanced Care framework.

His position was not a wholesale return to the former tort system, but a focus on identifying gaps in the current model and ensuring catastrophic injuries and complex cases were treated fairly.

Outcomes over announcements

A recurring theme across Brennan's legislative work was the need for measurable outcomes, transparent data and clear public reporting. That approach shaped his work on healthcare, seniors, long-term care, primary care, diagnostics and public spending.