Ella Dalling has been waiting for a daycare spot for her nine-month-old daughter Murph since she was pregnant. She signed up for around 20 waitlists in Vancouver but hasn’t received any responses. Dalling mentioned that parents in Vancouver have to be patient or reach out to daycares directly due to the absence of fee caps, resulting in monthly prices varying from $200 to $2,000.
Dalling recently launched an online platform called Little Scout that allows daycares to list available spots and helps parents locate nearby options. Through this initiative, she has spoken with parents and child-care providers across British Columbia who agree that the current system needs enhancements.
According to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, British Columbia is lagging behind other provinces in offering universal and affordable child care. The province’s child-care system comprises a mix of private and non-profit operators, some receiving significant government subsidies, while others charge full fees.
David Macdonald, a co-author of the report, highlighted the complexity faced by parents in British Columbia when trying to determine child-care costs. While British Columbia has made progress after reaching an agreement with Ottawa on child-care funding in 2021, the savings for parents range from $300 to $500 per month, much lower compared to provinces with fee caps.
Notably, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Nunavut have capped child-care fees at $10 a day, while parents in Alberta pay a maximum of $15 a day and $22 a day in Ontario. Despite being an early advocate for $10-a-day universal child care, advocates like Sharon Gregson from the $10-a-day Child Care Campaign point out that the British Columbia government has stalled on this issue, leading to concerns about the province’s ability to catch up with other provinces’ progress in child-care accessibility.
Education and Child Care Minister Lisa Beare expressed unease about the current structure of the $10-a-day program, describing it as a lottery system rather than need-based. Consequently, the B.C. government has halted the expansion of the $10-a-day child-care program to address structural inequities and work towards establishing a more inclusive, affordable, and sustainable child care system in the future.