Little Angels Daycare in Burns Lake and the Beanstalk Childcare Centre in Houston are two of 52 sites across BC to offer a lower-cost childcare for parents.
Families will now pay no more than $200 a month per child as part of the Province’s Universal Childcare Prototype Project.
Little Angels Manager Nikki Shumka says this initiative will especially help in smaller communities like her’s.
“It’s hard to find quality daycare for a decent price. We have parents with three children that are paying $16/hour for their children to come to daycare and if you don’t have a job that pays substantially more than that, there’s no point in going back to work.”
According to Shumka, this has greatly impacted her site since being implemented on November 1st.
“I’ve already had seven people enroll, which is substantial because our daycare doesn’t run at full capacity but in preparation for this, I’ve hired three new staff anticipating that my daycare will fill up.”
This is the next step in the provincial government’s ten-year ChildCare BC plan. Spaces are being funded through a $60 million investment under the Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the Government of Canada. Parents of around 2,500 will benefit from these prototype projects.
“This project takes a major step towards universal child care in British Columbia. The demand for this program was so strong that we expanded it to cover more children and more sites in every region of the province in the prototype stage,” said Katrine Conroy, federal Minister of Children and Family Development, in a statement.
“We want to make life more affordable for families, and this investment will demonstrate the low-cost, high-quality care B.C. parents can look forward to as we fully implement ChildCare BC.”
Sites were chosen by the Province after a call for applications this past June. Childcare providers at the new prototype sites will receive government funding to cover operational and administration costs. Feedback will be relayed to the BC government in order to shape the future implementation of universal care. While the prototype projects will last 18 months, Premier John Horgan said more sites could be implemented before that time.
“We want success to breed success. I know the providers want that and the families definitely want that as well. If we see success, there is going to be more and more, that’s what we set out to do 15 months ago.”
Each site will also receive a one-time quality improvement grant in 2019 to help enhance program quality. The dollar total of these grants will be determined after evaluations of each sites’ programs and improvement plans.
“Prototype sites give us a glimpse of what the future of universal child care in B.C. can be, and are critical as we design and refine our program moving forward,” said Katrina Chen, B.C.’s Minister of State for Child Care, in a statement.
“They build on the work we’ve already done to bring affordability relief to thousands of families through universal fee reductions and the Affordable Child Care Benefit.”
Parents not accessing these spaces could still be eligible for support through the Affordable Child Care Benefit, which provides up to $1,250 a month per child for families with an annual income of $111,000 or less. The Province also promoted the Child Care Fee Reduction, which has reduced the cost of nearly 52,000 childcare spaces across BC.