PART 2 OF 4 POLICY BRIEFING NOTES • FALL 2018

Click here to download a PDF version of this policy brief.

PART 1 OF 4 POLICY BRIEFING NOTES • FALL 2018

Click here to download a PDF version of this policy brief.

September 21, 2018

Honourable Katrina Chen
Minister of State for Child Care
PO Box 9057 STN PROV GOVT
Victoria, BC V8V 9E2

Dear Minister of State Chen:

Recently we have been contacted by parents and child care providers expressing concern about:

1. Child care fees that, from their perspective, are increasing substantially – despite their program’s participation in the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative (FRI)
2. Licensed programs that may be closing, for various publicly-stated reasons.  

In the past, we alerted you to individual cases of unusual fee increases in Nanaimo that came to our attention. We are now hearing of large fee increases in other communities, typically in for-profit operations, which have resulted in no, or minimal, fee reductions for families.

Ministry staff have advised they are monitoring the situation closely, and find these are isolated situations. We hope that remains true for both unusual fee increases and program closures.

Certainly, we’ve been hearing lots of concerns about fee increases and program closures for many years. However, unlike the previous government, your government is making significant investments in lowering parent fees and increasing licensed spaces, so it’s essential to ensure that your child care priorities are not undermined.  In addition to the policies and accountability mechanisms already in place, we recommend that government take proactive steps to reduce the possibility of these situations arising, follow-up on individual concerns, and take action where appropriate and necessary.  

Click here to download a PDF version of the letter to Minister Chen

BC Government takes one more step towards affordable child care in BC!

Parent fees eliminated for most families earning less than $45,000 annually with children under age 3 in licensed child care – as recommended in the $10aDay Child Care Plan.

Building on the BC government’s recent Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative - which is saving families of more than 50,000 young children up to $350 monthly for licensed child care - effective September 1, 2018 government’s new Affordable Child Care Benefit provides even more affordability relief for more families. Through a streamlined, on-line application process, families with annual incomes of $45,000 or less will receive the full benefit, up to the cost of care, and those who make up to $111,000 will receive a
portion, scaled according to income.

“Joyful and excited are some of the words I’d use to describe the responses we’ve heard from families already” reports Sharon Gregson, Spokesperson for the $10aDay Plan. “They’ve used government’s online calculator, and are now anticipating more fee relief. So it’s important to ensure that families are aware of this benefit.”

However, while increasing income-tested subsides can provide affordability relief in the short term, it is not the way to build or fund a child care system over time. It’s not the way we fund schools, libraries, hospitals or other BC early learning programs like Strong Start. It isn’t even the way we fund programs at community centres, where user fees are often reduced or waived for people with economic or other barriers while everyone else pays the same. Public funds cover the difference.

For the first time in a generation Early Childhood Educators in BC will receive a publicly-funded wage increase.

After nearly two decades of government ignoring the growing recruitment and retention crisis in the Child Care sector, new funding for wages and education are very welcome. Now that government is supporting the child care workforce, making child care more affordable for families and creating new licensed spaces, the foundations for achieving quality, universal child care are in place.

Wage enhancements of $1/hr in 2018 ($2,080 annually for a 40 hour week), with another $1/hr in 2020, are important steps towards addressing the recruitment and retention crisis across BC. Yet, today’s wages are so low – averaging about $17/hour province-wide – that we’ll be urging all MLA’s to support an additional wage lift before 2020.

Good news for families across the province! Today the BC government announced the next step on the province’s path to universal child care – funding for the creation of 22,000 new licensed child care spaces over the next three years.

Public partners, local governments, school districts, etc.  can access $1 million for each project, not-for-profit organizations can access $500,000, and for-profit companies can access $250,000.

More licensed spaces can’t come soon enough for the thousands of families on waiting lists. Mums like Theo, who is currently looking for toddler care for her son.  She says “I need to work knowing my son is safe and well-cared for – there should be a licensed child care space for every child who needs one.”

With long-overdue provincial government investment, child care in BC is finally on the way to becoming more available and affordable for families across the province. However, the third leg of the child care stool – quality – must be addressed promptly, starting with an immediate lift to ECE wages.

                “More licensed spaces are desperately needed by families with young children - but equally desperate is the need to have enough educators to work in those new spaces. We’re anxiously waiting for provincial wage enhancement funding, “says spokesperson Sharon Gregson.

Child Care is finally seeing improvements in BC – good public policy that reduces parent fees, invests in Aboriginal Head Start expansion, improved maintenance grants, investments in child care for children with additional support needs, and funds to move unlicensed spaces into the licensed sector.

                “However, we are concerned that public funds are still available to build facilities that will be owned by individuals and corporations, rather than publicly-owned like schools and libraries,” commented $10aDay researcher, Lynell Anderson CPA CGA.

No other province or territory in Canada provides such significant, open-ended public funding in the form of capital dollars for the expansion of private child care assets.

Here's a copy of a recent letter sent to Katrina Chen, the Minister of State for Child Care (click here for a PDF version).

As government takes its first steps to implement a system of universal child care, here's the latest on what you need to know.

$10aDAY PLAN SUPPORTERS ARE CELEBRATING the BC government’s commitment to building a quality, universal child care system. Child Care BC acknowledges the importance of a fairly- compensated workforce and a system built on affordability for all families.