Tag Archives: child care

Among parents that have difficulty finding child care, 59 per cent of British Columbians say affordability is a barrier to child care. Photo submitted by Baneet Braich

Barriers to child care affordability and accessibility in B.C. remain third highest in Canada.

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Thea Lopez immigrated to Surrey, B.C. in 2017 with her husband, one-year-old daughter, and one child on the way.  Starting their new careers in Canada as nurses, child care was a top priority. In 2017, Lopez’s children were number 360 plus on the child care waitlist. Three years later her son is still number 27 and her daughter- who is now in kindergarten- is number 26.

“I called more than 30 facilities in 2017 and there were no spaces, even if I have the resources to put my kids in, there is no space,” she says. “As much as I want to work and be part of the system, I cannot.” 

Lopez’s struggles led her to advocate for the $10aDay Child Care initiative in B.C. which pushes for families to pay $200 a month for child care with participating daycares. 

Since November 2018, the B.C. government approved over 50 prototype sites where families pay $200 a month for child care. A recent Early Learning and Child Care agreement with the federal government has extended the prototype sites into 2021. These sites are testing funding and operations towards a universal child care system, according to the government of B.C. website. 

Sharon Gregson, spokesperson $10aDay Child Care, says she is hopeful that COVID-19 will instill urgency and result in long-term changes to child care.“Covid-19 has highlighted both provincially and federally how crucial child care is for women’s participation in the workforce,” says Gregson. When more parents can access affordable child care, it has an impact on labour force participation, she added. 

 The median cost of full-time, full-day child care in Vancouver in 2018 was nearly $1,400 a month for infants, $1,407 for toddlers, and $1,000 for a preschoolers, according to a report by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. For Lopez, the cheapest daycare she found was $900 a month but with an extensive waiting list. 

Alison Merton, director of the Early Years Program at Collingwood Neighbourhood House says that despite a 25 per cent increase in requests at her day care this year, she recognizes that accessibility and affordability remain a concern for families. 

This graph shows differences in finding child care due to affordability by province in 2019. For data source by Statistics Canada click here.

“Accessibility is huge,” she says. “Having those spaces available for families, we just don’t have enough especially for infants and toddlers. We just don’t.”

Merton says that part of the issue is recruitment and retention in the field. “We just don’t have the staff coming into the field. It’s just very hard to piece together, she says.

Although the government added $2 an hour to early childhood educator (ECE) wages in April 2020, Merton says, “We need to do better.”  Many ECE staff leave to work in education for higher pay and better benefits, she says.

Merton says the child care system can be improved by having funding allocated to child care programs instead of the subsidy for families.  “If you are funding the programs you have a certain amount of control of quality being delivered to the program,” she says.  

Among the people who have difficulty finding child care, 66.4 per cent of B.C. parents say it’s due to difficulty finding available child care in their communities.For data source by Statistics Canada click here.

While municipalities have different needs to best foster child care demands, Gregson says she remains absolutely hopeful with B.C.’s child care future. 

“B.C. is one of the few provinces that has a provincial plan ready to be implemented,” says Gregson. B.C.’s cities are in a much better position now to know where they need childcare, how much, and their issues with recruitment and childcare educators, she adds. 

British Columbia’s investment into childcare continues in 2020 with $1.4 billion for Childcare BC. This brings the total investment in child care programs to $2 billion over three years, according to the government of B.C. website. 

 

Ottawa’s new child care centres face uncertain future with halted provincial funds

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The City of Ottawa spent approximately $10 million to create and subsidize new child care spaces. Pictured is Andrew Fleck child care centre, a provider that receives funding from the city, on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. Photo by Erika Ibrahim

Ottawa is spending almost 90 per cent less to help parents who need spots in licensed child care spaces, according to an analysis of the city’s 2020 budget.

The city’s increased spending came from several one-time transfers in 2017 from the province in an effort to make child care more affordable.

This funding went toward creating about 400 new licensed child care spaces by the end of 2020.

“You can build a beautiful child care centre. You can’t really hire people to work in it unless you have a budget [to pay them]. Then parents end up having to pay for it.”

Martha Friendly, founder of a national child-care policy group called the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, said to keep these new spaces running, the city would have to not just create new spaces and subsidize child care fees, but also put money toward paying staff.

She said when governments don’t subsidize staff salaries, those costs are passed along to parents, making child-care fees even higher and more out of reach.

“So essentially you could have it running, and the room is just sitting there [empty].”

Special purpose funding also helped approximately 2,000 families with the high costs of child care, according to a city spokesperson.

 

Ontario licenses child care centres, as well as private-home day care agencies. These spaces may care for children of different age groups, such as infants, toddlers and pre-school-aged children. These spaces can also be for school-aged children before or after school hours, or when schools are closed.

Child care fee subsidies are given, according to a family’s level of financial need.

In an emailed response, a city spokesperson said that they continue to receive provincial and federal investments, but did not explain how much and whether it was enough to cover keeping the newly created child care spaces going long-term.

This drop in funding comes at a time when the Ontario government announced cuts to child care funding for municipalities.

Starting this year, Ottawa will have to pay 20 per cent of costs to create new centres. This change results in a reduced projected revenue of $2.7 million, according to a staff report presented to the committee overseeing the child services budget.

The provincial government says this change is part of reducing administrative costs and wasteful government policies.

Child care in Ottawa may become less accessible and affordable as an effect of the provincial cuts, according to the report. The funding drop may also result in fewer supports to child care providers.

The staff report says that the City would discuss proposals on how to make up this shortfall in the 2020 budget. However, there is no mention of proposals of the budget tabled for this year.

Jason Sabourin, Manager of Children’s Services in Ottawa, could not be reached for comment before this story’s deadline.

Large local child care provider Andrew Fleck Child Services could also not be reached for comment before this story’s deadline.