New study confirms that government investments in $10aDay child care deliver economic growth for all

A new report by Dr. Jim Stanford, Director of Canada’s Centre for Future Work shows that recent growth of the child care sector, combined with lower parent fees, boosted BC’s GDP in 2024 by $5.8 billion, a sum much larger than the province’s child care expenditures that same year.

The report, entitled “The Economic Benefits of Expanded Child Care Services in British Columbia,” says that 8,000 new jobs have been created in the child care sector since 2019. Average weekly earnings for BC ELCC workers went up 17 per cent over that same time period, slightly surpassing the rate of inflation.

In his report, Stanford notes that a key economic benefit of more affordable and accessible ELCC services is higher labour force participation among women. In B.C., core-age (25-54) female labour force participation increased by over one full percentage point between 2019 and 2025.

Stanford’s findings for BC match those set out in another study he conducted in 2024 to determine the impact of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care on Canada’s national economy. He reported that the combination of increased ELCC activity, expanded spin-off work (in upstream supply chains and downstream consumer industries), and enhanced female employment had brought up Canada’s national GDP by $32 billion (or over 1%) since 2019.