All BC families have access to high quality, inclusive, flexible child care with fees capped at $10aDay, with professional wages, benefits, and healthy working conditions for educators – all within a system that upholds Indigenous rights and advances reconciliation.
Progress
In response to the $10aDay campaign and our amazing supporters – and based largely on our $10aDay Plan – the BC Government has started to build a system of quality, affordable, universal child care.
The federal government has followed suit, with historic levels of funding to provinces and Indigenous peoples to achieve $10aDay child care across Canada, and the goals set out in the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework.
The good news is government has achieved some real milestones that are life-changing for families. The worrying news is that big roadblocks remain in the way of further progress, and BC isn't yet acting fast enough to implement solutions. Here's where we're at:
Milestones
What we’ve achieved, together
Governments on board: After 50+ years of advocacy, the BC and federal governments have committed to build a universal $10aDay child care system.
13,261 $10aDay spaces created: And 30,500 additional new licenced spaces funded since 2018.
Slashed fees: For families not yet in $10aDay programs, monthly fees in full-day programs reduced by up to $900/month per child under 6.
Higher wages: Most early childhood educators now receive a $4/hour publicly-funded wage top-up.
ECE Bursaries: more than 7,000 post-secondary students received bursaries towards their education.
And more...
Roadblocks
Some current challenges
Recruitment & retention crisis: We don’t have enough early childhood educators. 45% of child care programs are losing more staff than they can hire.
Messy operating funding: BC currently uses a combination of six different operating funding programs, resulting in inconsistent fees, wages, and often-inadequate day-to-day funding levels across the system, putting existing child care spaces at risk.
Haphazard expansion: BC’s current child care expansion model leans on individual local organizations to do all of the work (apply for funding, plan, design, and build new spaces) often within unrealistic budget caps, leading to slower expansion and inconsistent quality.
Solutions
Some priorities for action
Fair wages for early childhood educators: Move from the current top-up to a BC wide wage grid of at least $30 to $40/hr based on qualifications and experience.
Convert all licensed care to $10aDay: Move to a single unified public funding model that caps all parent fees at $10aDay, funds an ECE wage grid, and covers other costs of high-quality care, across the entire publicly-funded system.
Provincially planned expansion: As with K-12 (coordinated by School Districts), systematically plan the build-out of universal child care with public, non-profit, and Indigenous partners.