The four-year agreement for BCGEU members includes a three per cent general wage increase per year, as well as targeted pay adjustments for the lowest-paid workers to help address the province’s affordability challenges.
In addition to monetary compensation improvements, the deal features a number of non-wage gains, such as modernized telework provisions, stronger job protections (including a new review process for excluded positions), a faster grievance tribunal process for quicker dispute resolution, enhanced benefits for vision care and mental health counselling, and new protections for fully remote workers.
Finch said the package represents “meaningful movement toward closing the gap between public sector wages and the rising cost of living.”
“This agreement is a step toward fairness,” added Finch. “It helps ensure that experienced public service workers can afford to stay in their jobs and continue delivering the critical services British Columbians rely on every day.”
The BCGEU bargaining committee will recommend the agreement for ratification, with details to be released after members vote in the coming days.
Throughout the strike, BCGEU members maintained essential services and focused job action primarily on government operations to minimize disruption to the public.
However, BCGEU’s eight-week strike that first began on Sept. 2 has had significant ripple effects across both the public sector and broader economy. While the union made clear its strategy to minimize direct public disruptions by focusing on core government operations, backlogs began accumulating in services such as licensing offices and regulatory permits, and job action extended into roles supporting mining operations and even wildfire response.
One of the most visible impacts rippled through the hospitality industry as restaurants and bars began running out of liquor inventory.
With the job action disrupting supply from the BC Liquor Distribution Branch, many establishments were left unable to restock key products. Restaurants Canada warned that, without swift action, the shortage could push many small businesses to the brink. The association went as far to urge the provincial government and the BCGEU to reach an agreement quickly — or, failing that, to temporarily allow restaurants and bars to purchase alcohol from private liquor stores to sustain operations.
Restaurants can only restock by visiting open BC Liquor Stores — limited to just three items per SKU per day — and with picket lines rotating across locations, that option was unreliable and unsafe for many businesses scrambling to secure stock.
Economically, experts note that even modest wage increases in this bargaining unit carry large cost implications for the provincial government’s already-struggling finances — each one-percent raise for the broader public sector was estimated by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) at roughly $532 million annually.
Looking ahead, the B.C. government’s annual operating budget deficits are projected to rise to $10.9 billion in the 2025/2026 fiscal year, then narrow slightly to around $10.2 billion in 2026/2027 and $9.9 billion in 2027/2028.
These deficits are set against a backdrop of modest revenue growth (forecast at 1.4 per cent in 2025/2026) due to sluggish economic activity and faster government expense growth (projected at 3.2 per cent), which widen the gap between what the government collects and what it spends.
According to CFIB, since 2017, B.C.’s overall public sector compensation base has grown by $26.5 billion, outpacing the rate of inflation. This growth is largely driven by a substantial increase in public sector employees, growing by about 210,000 employees or 55 per cent. This includes nearly 92,000 additional healthcare workers between 2017 and 2024.
Management costs have notably increased from a considerable rise in their head counts. Provincial Crown corporations have also seen their total labour costs go up by 93 per cent, with the number of staff rising by 62 per cent.
Over the same seven-year period, the provincial government added nearly 14,700 public servants, an increase of 45 per cent.