PBC · Health

B.C. deaths and coroner investigations: publish the evidence behind the answers

PBC Editorial · Published October 22, 2026 · Source review and analysis

PBC’s September review of Bryan Tepper’s mortality video asked for the tables behind competing political claims. The recovered draft is now refreshed with the full legislative exchange, annual death figures and a newer coroner-workload report. The accountability question remains: can the public trace each assertion back to the right population, period and definition?

Neither a rounded percentage in a partisan video nor a minister’s explanation should be accepted as a substitute for the underlying analysis. The records establish increased deaths compared with 2019, a decline after 2022, and fewer deaths proceeding to coroner investigation in the latest fiscal years reviewed. They do not establish concealment, a particular medical cause or an unlawful refusal to investigate.

What the full exchange says

The recovered source record dates the Facebook repost to September 8, 2026, not the legislative proceeding. Its September editorial review described Tepper’s commentary about a “15% increase in deaths” and investigations being up “about 14%.” Those remain attributed claims, not verified calculations. The original video has not been re-viewed for this update. [2]

The freshly retrieved Hansard supplies important context. Tepper’s preceding question refers to 2018–19, roughly “38,700-ish” annual deaths, around 41,400 in 2020, “2021 till now,” and almost 46,000 in 2022. That is not one unambiguous pair of endpoints for a 15% calculation.

Krieger’s first answer distinguishes overall deaths from deaths reported to the Coroners Service. She directs the overall-death question toward Vital Statistics and says, after consulting the chief coroner, that reported deaths showed a slight increase aligned with demographic changes.

After Tepper follows up, Krieger says most of the increase relates to natural causes not reportable under section 2 of the Coroners Act. These statements are part of the official exchange; they are not themselves a published statistical decomposition of mortality growth. In particular, the earlier demographic explanation expressly concerns reported deaths, not all deaths. [1]

What the annual death series shows

Statistics Canada’s table 13-10-0708-01, downloaded again for this review, gives the following counts for British Columbia, place of residence; all months; number of deaths: [3]

The 2024 figures are preliminary. Statistics Canada’s January 13, 2026 release identifies 2016–2023 data as revised and explains that investigation and reporting delays affect the completeness of recent data. The retrieved annual series ends in 2024; this is not a claim about full-year deaths in 2025 or 2026. [4]

Calculated directly from those rows, the increase was 15.65% from 2019 to 2021, 18.82% from 2019 to 2022, and 14.52% from 2019 to 2024. Deaths fell 1.32% from 2023 to 2024.

These comparisons show a real increase over the pre-pandemic count, followed by annual declines after 2022. Selecting a comparison that resembles Tepper’s rounded percentage would not establish that it was his calculation. Residence-based data can also differ from occurrence-based provincial statistics and earlier data vintages.

Coroner reports and investigations are a different series

The ministry’s annual service plan reports distinguish deaths reported to the BC Coroners Service from those meeting criteria and proceeding to investigation. The newly retrieved 2025/26 report extends the earlier draft’s comparison: [5]

On these as-published figures, investigations increased 2.93% between the first two years, then fell 5.93% and 3.59% in the following years. These are deaths proceeding to investigation, not counts of completed reports.

The 2025/26 report separately says the median time to conclude investigations for that fiscal year was not yet available because many investigations remained active. A missing completion-time measure does not make the reported intake count disappear.

These comparisons do not reproduce an increase of about 14%. They also do not disprove a different, still-unidentified longer-period comparison. The MLA’s exact source table and endpoints are needed to test that claim fairly.

Fiscal-year workload figures must not be subtracted from calendar-year death totals as if the periods and populations matched. Similar percentage changes in differently sized categories also cannot establish where most additional deaths occurred.

“Natural” is not a blanket legal exclusion

The Coroners Act does not require a full investigation of every death. Section 7 requires a coroner to investigate a reported B.C. death when satisfied that the matters reported, if true, suggest the death was required to be reported under Part 2. [6]

But a death eventually classified as natural can still be reportable. Section 2 includes a death occurring suddenly and unexpectedly when the person was apparently in good health and not under the care of a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner. It also includes death from disease, sickness or unknown cause for which the person was not treated by either practitioner. Other reporting provisions apply in specified circumstances.

The law also permits broader review. Under section 49, the chief coroner may establish death review panels—and must do so at the minister’s direction—to review deaths and advise on public health, safety and prevention. That is a real mechanism, not proof that an unexplained percentage automatically triggers a legally mandatory population-wide inquiry.

The statutory consolidation retrieved for this update is marked current to October 13, 2026. Its reporting rules should not be reduced to “natural deaths are never the coroner’s responsibility.” Nor does their existence prove that a reportable death was unlawfully ignored.

More deaths are not automatically excess mortality

Total counts, mortality rates, age-standardized rates and excess mortality answer different questions. Population growth and aging can increase the number of deaths without an equivalent increase in each resident’s risk. That methodological point does not demonstrate that demographics explain all of the change in this case.

Statistics Canada defines excess mortality as deaths above the number expected during a period. Its archived methodological explanation is useful for the distinction, not a current B.C. excess-death estimate. [7]

The useful next step is a public reconciliation: the exact tables and periods behind Tepper’s percentages; the analysis supporting the minister’s explanation; age-specific or age-standardized results; major causes; reporting delays; and revisions. The responsible agencies should distinguish deaths registered, reports received, investigations begun and investigations concluded.

The evidence reviewed here establishes neither concealment nor a particular policy as the cause of the changes. It supports a narrower accountability demand: publish the underlying numbers and analysis rather than asking the public to choose between competing assertions.

Sources and evidence limits

1. Legislature-hosted Hansard, May 19, 2026 afternoon, Issue 178, approximately 2:30–2:35 p.m. Full HTML retrieved again; relevant excerpt retained. The site identifies the PDF as the official digital version; this review used the Legislature-hosted HTML, not a newly obtained Hansard PDF.
2. Supplied Facebook post; resolved reel. Social observations and the 14% quotation are preserved in the recovered September editorial record; no new MP4 review is claimed.
3. Statistics Canada table 13-10-0708-01; full CSV download. Exact filters, extracted rows and calculations retained. Counts are by residence, not necessarily place of death.
4. Statistics Canada, Deaths, 2024, January 13, 2026. Source for preliminary/revised status and reporting-lag caution.
5. Public Safety and Solicitor General annual service plan reports: 2022/23, p.25; 2023/24, p.28; 2024/25, p.30; 2025/26, p.26. These are as-published fiscal-year figures, not a claim that all historical case records are final.
6. B.C. Coroners Act, sections 2, 7 and 49. Direct official text retrieved for this update.
7. Statistics Canada archived excess-mortality explanation. Methodological context only; no historical dashboard figure is represented as current.

No new outreach was conducted. No individual criminality, misconduct finding, specific inquest or presiding judge is established by this article. General legal context is not legal advice.