Health authority review launches to ensure support for front-line services
Press Release
March 31, 2025
VICTORIA – The Province is launching its health authority review to ensure resource allocations are supporting critical patient services and minimize unnecessary administrative spending.
The Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) has been selected as the first health authority to undergo review due to its provincewide role providing services and an array of additional shared services, such as information technology and lab services, across the health system. The PHSA provides provincial services through BC Cancer, BC Children’s Hospital, BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre, BC Emergency Health Services, BC Mental Health and the BC Centre for Disease Control.
“Government is committed to ensuring health authorities are functioning as effectively and efficiently as possible, and that programs and governance make sense when tackling the complex challenges facing health care today,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Health. “That’s why we’re reviewing each health authority to confirm patients, their families and health-care providers are benefiting from the most possible and the best use of resources directed to front-line patient care.”
Last week, PHSA’s president and CEO, David Byres, accepted a secondment reporting to the Minister of Health to work in partnership with the ministry and Indigenous leaders to amplify reconciliation efforts focused on eliminating Indigenous-specific racism in health care.
Dr. Penny Ballem has been asked to step out of her role as Vancouver Coastal Health board chair to take on the role of PHSA’s interim president and CEO. In this role, Ballem will lead the review and make recommendations and associated changes as needed to reposition, streamline and optimize resources at the PHSA to support patients and health-care providers throughout the province.
After eight years as PHSA board chair, Tim Manning has completed his term and retires on March 31, 2025, along with several other board members. An interim board, chaired by Maureen Maloney OBC, KC, has been appointed to support the review. Appointment of a fourth PHSA board member is anticipated in the coming weeks.
Other changes at regional health authorities include vice-chair William Duvall appointed to succeed Ballem as board chair at Vancouver Coastal Health and vice-chair Opreet Kang appointed to succeed Jim Sinclair as interim board chair at Fraser Health as he completes his term and retires after serving seven years in that role.
“On behalf of a grateful province, I would like to thank all out-going board chairs, Tim Manning and Jim Sinclair, as well as all departing board members at the PHSA and regional health authorities for their commitment and dedication to strengthening health care, especially over these past several years, helping lead the system through so many complex challenges,” Osborne said. “I would also like to thank and welcome those newly appointed as they step into important roles supporting the challenging work ahead.”
A backgrounder follows.
Contact:
Ministry of Health
Communications
250 952-1887 (media line)
BACKGROUNDER
Details about the interim Provincial Health Services Authority board
Updated March 30, 2025
Details about the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) appointees are as follows:
Tim Manning has completed his term as board chair, as have board members Donisa Bernardo, Dianne Doyle, Sandra A. Martin Harris (Wii Esdes), Piotr Majkowski and Richard Short. Additional departing directors are, Dr. Morgan Price, Gary Caroline, Bill Chan, Julia Dillabough, Joanna Gislason and Gloria Morgan.
The interim board of directors are:
Maureen Maloney, OBC, KC, chair –
Maureen Maloney is professor emerita at Simon Fraser University’s school of public policy and former dean of law and Lam chair in law and public policy at the University of Victoria. Maloney served as British Columbia’s deputy minister to the Attorney General from 1993 to 2000, and deputy attorney general from 1997 to 2000. She has been a member of the numerous boards, including the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, the International Commission of Jurists (Canadian Section), the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, and also served as a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. She chaired the Province’s Expert Panel on Money Laundering in Real Estate from 2018 to 2019.
Heather McKay –
Heather McKay is a professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where she is the Active Aging Research Team’s lead scientist. She has collaborated with the B.C. Ministry of Health for more than 15 years and leads a partnership between researchers, governments, health authorities and NGOs to enact Health Aging B.C. From 2006-16, McKay was the inaugural director of the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, a multidisciplinary CFI centre funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. More recently, she co-led UBC’s Health Aging Research Excellence cluster. McKay leads an Implementation Science Team at UBC. Her work focuses on healthy aging research. She also holds a position on the editorial board of the scientific journal Implementation Research and Practice. She has received a CIHR Knowledge Translation Award, a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award and has been inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2018) in recognition of her academic scholarship and community engagement.
Tiffany Ma, CPA –
Tiffany Ma is the associate deputy minister of the B.C. Ministry of Health. Since joining the BC Public Service in 2006, Ma has served in progressively senior capacities across several ministries, including as chief financial officer for the Ministry of Education. Prior to joining the Ministry of Health, Ma was the assistant deputy minister and deputy secretary to Treasury Board at the Ministry of Finance. Ma also served as a trustee on the Public Service Pension Board.
Contact:
Ministry of Health
Communications
250 952-1887 (media line)
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