BC CHILD CARE IS IN CRISIS AND IT NEEDS TO BE AN ELECTION ISSUE…AGAIN

The child care operators of B.C. are speaking up. 

British Columbia's child care sector is at a critical point where meaningful action is needed and significant challenges can no longer be ignored.

Collectively, child care operators provide essential child care services to the children and families of BC. Together we care for tens of thousands of children across the province.  We do this work because we know the early years are critical, and that quality care and learning sets children up for lifelong success. This essential work supports families, workplaces, communities and the provincial economy.

However, across the province, waiting lists still stretch years long, especially for children under three and school age kids. The wages and benefits of more than 20,000 educators in B.C. remain inadequate and inconsistent. Families pay up to $100/day for child care. Government funding is inadequate and needlessly complicated.

It is URGENT for whoever forms BC’s next government to ACT swiftly to save child care.  This is not an exaggeration – underfunding or paused funding has destabilized the entire sector.  Operators want to open new programs, offer more families access to $10aDay care and hire qualified educators. Instead we’ve been blocked by a government that denies the true cost of delivering quality care.  

Child care operators are experts when it comes to doing more with less. But there comes a point where "doing more with less" begins to affect children. We refuse to let that happen. The quality of care children receive must never become the cost of balancing the budget. 

The research and data are clear - even the federal government agrees by recently increasing their child care funding to B.C. by $630 million, saying that child care is essential for a prosperous economy. We see it every day - caring for children so their parents can go to jobs in health care, mining, retail, trades, and in every other sector of B.C.’s economy.

Not long ago B.C. was a leader - with a vision and commitment to build a quality $10aDay child care system.  But, parents in our province now pay the highest fees in Canada, and B.C. and Yukon are the only jurisdictions that have neither capped fees for families nor implemented a wage grid for educators. 

ENOUGH.   

Children and families in British Columbia deserve MORE and we, the undersigned child care operators stand ready to deliver in moving a universal system forward.  But, we can’t do it alone. We urge BC’s next government to expand $10aDay child care and implement a funding model that reflects the true cost of quality care.