Families will save more on childcare through budget 2022
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As part of Budget 2022, the B.C. provincial government have committed to creation of 30,000 new child care spaces for children under six by March 2026, and a further 10,000 spaces by March 2028.
The B.C. provincial government announced, “Since launching the ChildCareBC plan in Budget 2018, the Province has invested more than $2.4 billion to build a quality, inclusive child care system.” Budget 2022 plans to continue this investment “by cutting average fees for half-day preschool programs and before- and after-school care for school-aged children to approximately $20 a day starting in September 2023”. Through the new agreement with the Government of Canada, the province announced that “average fees for full-day care for children ages five and under will be reduced by approximately 50% from 2019 levels through CCFRI to about $20 a day by the end of 2022” and that “93% of eligible licensed child care providers have enrolled in the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative (CCFRI), saving families $350 per month, per child.”
The budget also includes investment in the child care workforce:
The number of early childhood education (ECE) student spaces at public post-secondary institutions has doubled since 2018 to 1,150. Budget 2022 will add 390 more ECE seats at post-secondary institutions over the next three years.
The $4-an-hour ECE wage enhancement program will expand to include ECEs who work in Supported Child Development and Aboriginal Supported Child Development programs and those who spend less than 50% of their time in direct child care functions but are still working within child care services.
It will also add 24 new licensing officers to accelerate the process of certifying new child care facilities in B.C.
The budget announced ChildCareBC’s transition to the Ministry of Education. “The Province is working to bring that same reliability and certainty into child care by moving responsibility for child care into the Ministry of Education in April 2022. This transition reflects and responds to input from the child care sector and aligns with approaches taken in other provinces and territories. Moving child care into the Ministry of Education and establishing regional offices to support child care programs will help bring a regional view to child care and help government fund new spaces in areas where the need is greatest, including in rural, northern and Interior communities.”
There were also announcements around planned expansion of the B4 and Seamless Day school-based early years programs. Budget 2022 plans to:
expand the Seamless Day kindergarten program to an additional 36 schools throughout B.C. over the next three years. Seamless Day integrates before- and after-school care into the classroom, giving kindergarten and Grade 1 students a single location of care throughout the day.
expand the Just B4 program to 14 more school districts for the 2022-23 school year. Just B4 is a school-based, half-day licensed child care program for three- to four-year-olds that is designed to support children during the year before they enter kindergarten.