BC $10/day Childcare Within 5 Years
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
A July 8th CTV news report discussed a joint announcement by the federal government of Canada and the BC Government of a plan to bring childcare fees for children under six to the $10-a-day target within the next five years.
The proposal by the current federal government is for a five-year investment of $3.2 billion that would allow the BC government to move forward towards its childcare targets, goals which require federal support. BC premier John Horgan told the Prime Minister, “I can’t wait to cash the cheque!” The proposals were announced immediately prior to the Prime Minister calling a federal election and starting his re-election campaign.
The political leaders noted how the current COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted in importance of childcare. Families with children, and particularly women, have been heavily impacted by the burden of balancing the needs of their employment and their families during the restrictions required to fight the virus.
Child care advocates in BC expressed concern this past spring that the current B.C. budget is not able to add $10-a-day daycare spaces fast enough to meet the needs of families in the province, and have been pushing for the provincial and federal governments to work together to speed up the process.
During the first year of the pandemic, child care centres across Canada experienced a substantial drop in enrolment. A report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, released in March, 2021, based on a phone survey from September 22 – November 13, 2020, indicated that high costs and unemployment rates were significant factors.
Maria Weisgarber, reporting for CTV on March 18, interviewed report co-author David MacDonald, who commented, “It’s very concerning and very difficult for centres and homes that rely on parental fees for funding to continue to operate. They’re at risk of closure but they’re also at risk of losing staff. You lay off staff because you don’t have the kids, and then … when people are vaccinated and are hopefully going back to work, people need to put kids in daycare so they can go back to work, but those spaces aren’t there.”
In the same report, Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC spokesperson Sharon Gregson noted, “although the province has been making ‘huge’ investments in child care, with no fee cap, costs continue to increase, particularly in the for-profit sector. In Québec where fees are capped at an affordable rate, they have not seen the kind of enrolment drops that we’ve seen in other places.” She said, “In British Columbia we have about 584,000 children between the ages of zero and 12…. And about 400,000 of those children have mothers in the paid work force. And yet we only have about 125,000 licensed spaces.