Latest news with #affordablechildcare
CBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CBC
B.C. falling behind other provinces on affordable child care, report finds
For Surrey mom Lisa Kemp, child care for her two-year-old and six-year-old costs nearly $2,000 a month. "It's astronomical," she told CBC News. "And nowhere close to the promised $10-a-day daycare, which the NDP has been saying for years would be coming our way." She and her husband have spent years hunting for one of those coveted $10-a-day spots, which right now make up just over 10 per cent of the 160,000 licensed child-care spaces in B.C. "I have found frustration and disappointment and an overall lack of care spaces in the City of Surrey," she said. That's because Surrey has a lower proportion of $10-a-day sites compared to Vancouver. Surrey has 760 $10-a-day child-care spaces, while Vancouver has 3,800. WATCH | Advocates say B.C. failing at $10-a-day child care: Child-care advocates say B.C. is failing to provide $10-a-day spaces 19 days ago Duration 2:01 B.C.'s minister of education and child care admits there is more work to do when it comes to affordable child-care options. As Amelia John reports, advocates have accused the province of failing on its commitment to universal $10-a-day spaces. Rhea Hubbard, a director at Alex House, a non-profit organization that runs $10-a-day sites in Surrey, says the disparity is partially caused by the high number of for-profit private child-care centres in Surrey. The B.C. government has prioritized non-profits in awarding $10-a-day subsidies. Hubbard, who works on non-profit child care with the Surrey Child Care Task Force, would like to see more government grants to help non-profits in Surrey establish new child-care spaces. Kemp says she's frustrated the B.C. government has passed over private centres for $10-a-day subsidies, because parents desperate for a child-care spot will take the first option available to them. "It makes me incredibly frustrated. I don't feel that other cities should have substantially more than Surrey has." WATCH | Report reveals B.C. lagging behind rest of Canada on child care: New report finds B.C access to affordable child care worst in the country 9 hours ago Duration 2:36 A new report finds that B.C. is the worst-performing province when it comes to access to affordable child care spaces, with five of its cities topping the list for the most expensive median child care fees in the country. As CBC's Katie DeRosa reports, one Surrey mother says she feels like the province has abandoned its $10-a-day child care promise. A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives finds that despite leading the way on affordable child care five years ago, B.C. is now falling behind other provinces. B.C. is "the worst performing province or territory in the entire country," said David Macdonald, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives who co-authored the report. Out of 35 major Canadian cities, the report says five B.C. cities had the most expensive infant child-care fees. Topping the list was Richmond with median fees of $46 per day, followed by Surrey, Vancouver, Burnaby and Kelowna. Macdonald says B.C. has created a two-tier system with 10 per cent of parents receiving $10-a-day child care and others paying up to five times that. "We now have six provinces and territories that are at or below $10-a-day for all spaces. Not just for a few spaces in select cities," Macdonald said. Those six are Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, which have met or improved upon the government's 2026 target for $10-a-day child care, the report finds. WATCH | Child care fees in Surrey among most expensive in Canada: Surrey child-care fees some of the most expensive in Canada, survey finds 16 hours ago Duration 7:14 An annual survey by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on the federal child-care plan shows Surrey is failing to meet the $10-a-day target. Rhea Hubbard, who works on non-profit child care with the Surrey Child Care Task Force, says things are so hard, getting a $10-a-day spot is "like winning the lottery" for parents. The report finds that median child-care costs are lower in provinces where the government has imposed fee caps. For example, 12 cities in Ontario have median daily fees of $22 a day due to a new fee cap imposed by Doug Ford's government. And in five cities in Quebec, parents are paying slightly less than $10 a day. Sharon Gregson, spokesperson for the Coalition of Childcare Advocates, says she's disappointed to see the NDP stall on the universal $10-a-day child-care promise that was a marquee plank of the party's 2017 and 2020 election platforms. "Our provincial government has not only not lived up to its own promises. It's moved B.C. from being a leader to the back of the pack," Gregson said. Education and Child Care Minister Lisa Beare was not available for an interview. Her office said in a statement the report doesn't tell the full picture, failing to account for a key subsidy for lower- and middle-income families, which has lowered child-care fees by up to $1,250 a month for more than 35,000 children. Another government subsidy — the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative — has reduced fees by up to $900 a month at more than 144,000 spaces. "The vast majority — 96 per cent — of licensed spaces are enrolled in either of these two programs," Beare said in a statement. "There are more than 17,000 $10-a-day ChildCareBC spaces and we're on track to meet our spring 2026 target of 20,000 spaces." Kemp, the Surrey mom, says a fee cap model similar to Ontario's would be "fantastic." She would also like to see more transparency on how B.C. selects $10-a-day sites to level the playing field so that where you live doesn't determine how much families pay for child care.
CTV News
10-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
Tracking the progress of $10 a day child care
Atlantic Watch Child Care Now Nova Scotia talks about the delayed implementation of $10 a day child care in some provinces, including in the Maritimes.
CBC
09-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Ottawa not on track to meet 2026 deadline for $10-a-day child care: report
Social Sharing Ottawa is expected to miss its 2026 deadline to implement $10-a-day child care services across the country, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said in a new report published on Wednesday. The analysis concluded that just six provinces and territories are meeting that fee target now. David Macdonald, an economist with the centre, said even though fees have dropped significantly everywhere, the federal government is unlikely to meet its self-imposed deadline. "It's almost certain that even after the 2026 deadline passes, many parents in five provinces will be paying more than $10 a day for child care," Macdonald said. "That being said, the fee drops for parents so far have been staggering in Ontario, Alberta and Nunavut, as these jurisdictions had let fees get far too high before the federal program." The $10-a-day child care program, announced in 2021, was a signature policy of former prime minister Justin Trudeau. The report says just six provinces and territories — Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador — have met or improved upon the government's 2026 target for $10-a-day child care. Five provinces — Ontario, Nova Scotia, Alberta, B.C. and New Brunswick — do not yet have plans to reduce fees to $10 a day, the report says. Cities in those provinces have the highest costs for child care, says the report — for example parents in Richmond, B.C. are paying median fees of $39 per day for infants, about four times the target fee. The federal government's goal was for fees to "average" $10 a day, but Macdonald called that a "get out of jail free card" that will leave parents paying more than that amount after the deadline passes. "I think that this will become a political problem in April of 2026 when folks say, 'Wait a second, this is a $10-a-day child care program, but I'm paying $12, $17, $20 a day,"' he said. GTA sees drop significant drop in fees Jurisdictions like Ontario that already had high fees are seeing savings of around $1,300 per month in Toronto and $1,000 per month in the surrounding area, the report found. In Toronto and Ottawa, the median fee for infants is $22 per day, the report says. That's down from just under $86 a day five years ago, said Morna Ballantyne, executive director of Child Care Now, an advocacy group that was involved in the report. "In the GTA, the fees have dropped really dramatically, more than just about anywhere else because the fees were so high before the introduction of the federal program," Ballantyne said in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Wednesday. Macdonald said that's largely because regulations have forced prices down. "Across the board, we saw the provinces that had the fewest restrictions on fees and let the fees really get out of control, you see really big savings when you step in and regulate those fees," he said. Macdonald said it's unlikely Ontario and Alberta will meet the 2026 target but noted the "big progress" in those provinces and others. Ontario to cut funding from daycares not in $10-a-day program 10 months ago Duration 2:13 Ontario child-care centres that aren't participating in the national $10-a-day program will soon lose provincial funding to offer fee subsidies to lower-income families, and their staff could see a pay cut of $2 an hour. Fees in Quebec have increased slightly since 2019. Macdonald said that's largely due to inflation, with the province's day fee sitting about $0.70 below the $10 target. Macdonald said that as fees drop, another problem will continue to grow — the lack of child-care spaces. "At this point, there isn't enough. The fact that fees are much lower drives a lot more demand," he said. "Now the real question will be, can we rapidly build those spaces so that there are enough spaces for people to actually access these more affordable prices?" A huge challenge to creating those spaces is attracting and retaining people to work at them, partly due to low wages, said Ballantyne. "If we're trying to grow a system, especially [a] child-care system where it's a very labour intensive industry ... you need a lot of people who are trained and willing to work in the sector," she said. "And unfortunately, there are many early childhood educators who are fully qualified but are unable to work in child care because the wages are so poor and the benefits so few." Martha Friendly, who works with the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, said that to avoid "child-care deserts," more public and non-profit child care spaces should be created countrywide. "The expansion of the child-care workforce is also key, emphasizing the hiring of more workers and the retention of existing ones," Friendly said.
