$10aDay Media Release: Third year of Good News for Child Care

With a funding increase of almost $90 million in 2020/21, the BC government has fulfilled its 2018 budget commitment to the first three years of a 10-year plan to achieve universal child care.

Decades ofchildcare chaos is now being addressed with historic investments:

• Early childhood educators receiving $2/hr wage enhancements and bursaries
• Families of over55,000 childrenpaying lower fees, with 28,000 paying $10 a day or less
• 10,400 new licensed spaces created or under development
• Child care included as capital infrastructure in new schools across BC.

Much more remains to be done, as thousands of families are still waiting for a $10aDay program. In a 2019 poll, 90% of British Columbians confirmed their support for ongoing action on child care. With funding in Budget 2020, and new federal funding on its way, we expect the BC government to:

1. Implement a provincial wage grid for early childhood educators to raise wages and address recruitment and retention. Currently, licensed childcare spaces sit empty because there are no qualified educators to staff the programs.
2. Expandthe $10aDay prototype sites, as this providesthe best model for building a system.
3. Move child care into the Ministry of Education, where there is already a universal approach with capacity and infrastructure to expand licensed child care across BC.

It’s essential that government stop giving tax-payer funded handouts to expand for-profit, corporate child care and stop relying on voucher-style subsidies to make child care affordable.

Building a quality affordable universal child care system requires a dedicated capital budget to expand public child care spaces and an increase of $200 million annually in operating funds starting in 2021. These investments will benefit BC’s economy, support children and families, create green jobs and advance gender equality.

Sharon Gregson 604-505-5725 sgregson@telus.net
Emily Gawlick 778-994-8001 executive.director@ecebc.ca
Lynell Anderson 604-313-6904 lynellanderson74@gmail.com

Download a PDF of the media release below:

$10aDay Feb. 18 2020 Media Release