BC relaunches $10aDay child care campaign
British Columbia’s Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC (CCCABC) have relaunched their successful $10aDay child care campaign.
The campaign calls for universal, quality, $10aDay child care in BC. It builds on the provincial government’s 2018 commitment that led BC to become a “national leader in child care for a few years”, said Sharon Gregson, spokesperson for CCCABC.
Yet today, with only three years left in the province’s 10-year plan, and provincial child care funding flatlined, parents, operators, business leaders and many others joined the Coalition to relaunch the campaign and advocate for continued progress toward the province’s promise to make child care a core service families can rely on.
The Coalition’s four point plan to achieve BC Government’s promise of universal child are
In the press conference to relaunch the $10aDay campaign, Gregson called on the provincial government to:
- Fix the $10aDay funding formula and invite all existing licensed child care programs in the province to be $10aDay sites
- Implement a fair and competitive wage grid for early childhood educators, starting at a minimum of $30-$40 based on qualifications and experience
- Give school districts the mandate and funding to deliver school-aged child care in every elementary school in BC, with targets and timelines to eliminate waitlists for school-aged child care
- Deliver on the province’s 2024 election commitment of a capital plan with a $500 million budget to create new child care programs across the province, including modular buildings
The Coalition also released a new online tool with visuals that highlight child care access by school district, allowing users to see how far their school district is from the promise of universal child care, and how it compares to others across the province. A second online tool focuses on fees and allows users to see the odds of “winning the $10aDay lottery” in their region.
New report confirms economic benefits to $10aDay child care in BC
As part of the campaign’s relaunch the Coalition released a significant new report by Dr. Jim Stanford, Economist and Director, Centre for Future Work. “The Economic Benefits of Expanded Child Care Services in British Columbia” highlights several economic impacts, including:
- 8,000 new direct jobs in the child care sector
- Increased female labour force participation and greater access to full-time work have increased labour supply by 33,000 FTE workers
- Lower child care fees helped to combat inflation
Stanford remarked in the press conference that overall in 2024 BC’s GDP was $5.8 billion larger than it would have been if not for the growth in the child care sector, generating an additional $1 billion in provincial government revenue, more than offsetting the 2024 provincial child care expenditures of $865 million.
Read more about the relaunch of the $10aDay plan
Read the full $10aDay campaign relaunch media release.
Read Dr. Jim Stanford’s report on the Economic Benefits of Expanded Child Care Services in British Columbia.