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HomeNewsMinister Katrina Chen pays a visit to Smithers tomorrow

Minister Katrina Chen pays a visit to Smithers tomorrow

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Minister of State for Child Care Katrina Chen will be visiting Smithers tomorrow (May 24th) as part of Child Care Month in BC.

Chen will visit Wit’suwit’en Child Care Centre, Walnut Park School, and join a roundtable hosted by the local Child Care Resource and Referral Centre.

“It’s a privilege to be able to visit a diverse range of child care centres while in Smithers,” said Chen. “I am excited to talk to local parents and providers, share our plans for universal child care in BC, and get their feedback or questions about early care and learning in their community.”

The tour of BC is to help Minister Chen better gauge how the Childcare BC plan is supporting families across the province.

It will also provide her with an opportunity to gather feedback on what is working and what needs to be adjusted while hearing directly from those who are benefiting from recent program enhancements.

Budget 2018 saw the launch of Childcare BC, a long-term plan to help parents access affordable, quality child care wherever and whenever they need it. Over the next three years, the Province is investing $1 billion to take the first steps towards universal childcare to B.C. families.

In 2018/2019, the Province will focus on creating more licensed infant/toddler child care spaces across the province, as well as reducing the cost of childcare for B.C. families.

In addition to the ChildCare Fee Reduction Initiative, another affordability measure will be introduced in September 2018. The new Affordable Child Care Benefit will help reduce childcare costs for lower-income families by up to $1,250 per month and will support approximately 86,000 B.C. families a year by 2020-21.

More on BC ChildCare can be found here. 

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