Child Care Month: Expansion of $10-a-Day Child Care Needed for BC Families
May is Child Care Month in British Columbia. It should be a time to celebrate early childhood educators and recognize the essential role child care plays in the lives of families, caregivers and communities.
But behind the celebration, BC’s child care system is at a breaking point.
Starting a family is both exciting and challenging. It takes a village to raise a child but unfortunately, many parents do not have access to the support they need. High-quality child care spaces are limited, waitlists are long and the cost of private child care is out of reach for many families.
Governments promised a universal child care system with capped fees at $10-a-day, but for most families that promise has not materialized. Families struggle to secure a child care spot and only about 10% of spaces are $10-a-day.
Access to high-quality affordable child care isn’t just a family issue, it’s a workforce and equity issue. Without it, parents – particularly mothers – are forced to reduce their work hours or leave their jobs altogether. Meanwhile, early childhood educators are stretched thin, and child care operators are struggling to recruit and retain staff. If the system continues to unravel, we all pay the price.
Here are what two mothers had to say about the difference affordable child care made and why it shouldn’t be this hard:
Maria
As a newcomer to Canada, university student and single mom, Maria needed to find affordable child care to balance caring for her child and completing her education. She started applying to child care centres when she was pregnant but everywhere was full with a two-year waitlist.
“I tried to talk to my school, asking if there’s a possibility of taking my child with me to the university because I couldn’t find child care and my classes had already started. It was honestly really challenging,” she said. “I spent maybe half a semester taking my child to one person after another while I was in school. It cost me a lot because they charge per hour and at that time I was a full-time student.”
A referral from her social worker connected Maria with the Single Mothers’ Support Services at the YWCA. With their support, Maria was finally able to secure a spot in a $10-a-day child care centre.
“Being in a $10-a-day centre is really good for me and I can afford it. I already finished school so now I can go to work while I know my child is in a safe place.”
She hopes that the government continues to invest in and expand $10-a-day child care because “there are more parents like me that are living on one income or maybe are experiencing difficulties in their lives and cannot afford more expensive child care. Also, our kids are our future. It’s worth investing in them and their education.”
Maria says her primary goal is to give her daughter a great childhood and more opportunities for her child’s future. She can already see the positive difference that the early childhood educators and time spent socializing with other children at daycare has made in her daughter’s life.
“I would take her to the library or community centres but she didn’t like to play with other kids. Now, after she just started daycare, she became social and now she knows how to share. She knows how to ask for anything she needs. She also took her first steps at daycare, which is amazing.”
Access to affordable child care is essential, especially for single mothers who generally have less support. Maria was fortunate to find and secure a spot in a $10-a-day child care centre, which ensures she doesn’t pay more than $200 a month compared to the average cost of $1,120 a month. According to the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC, $10-a-day saves families $920 a month per child. However, there are many parents and caregivers who still cannot access the $10-a-day child care program.
Pat
For many mothers such as Pat who work full-time, having child care is essential – but finding child care is an ongoing struggle. As a YWCA employee, Pat has priority in YWCA Early Learning and Child Care Centres waitlists, but that doesn’t guarantee that a spot will come up at the time she needs it. To make sure she could go back to work by the time her leave ended, Pat registered her first son on the waitlist for 18 child care centres.
“One of the child care centres I called told me their waitlist is five years. I was left with a feeling of dread and despair. Would I be able to go back to work? What was the future going to look like? Honestly, the child care system felt completely broken. It was very stressful and difficult,” Pat shared. She had friends who could rely on family to fill the gap but knew it wasn’t feasible to have her aging parents babysit full-time.
She anxiously waited as the months passed without a callback and soon her maternity leave was ending. Fortunately, she received a call from one of YWCA’s Early Learning and Child Care Centres by the time her son was a year old and she was able to go back to work. She went through the same stressful process to secure child care for her second son. Her oldest son is now aging out of his current placement and she is left hoping a new space will be available for him by this summer.
Without child care, Pat worries that many mothers like her would not be able to go to work and provide for their families.
“The majority of maternity leave and parental leave is typically taken by the mother. I would have to be the one who has to take temporary leave or work part-time while waiting for child care. Not being able to find child care prevents women from being in the workforce and affects gender equity,” she said.
Access to $10-a-day child care for her sons has also supported her future plans. Her family was living in a one-bedroom condo. Having affordable child care has meant that that Pat can work full-time, save, and upgrade to a larger place for their growing family.
But it shouldn’t have to be this hard. Pat hears from other parents that struggled to find child care 10 or 20 years ago. “Absolutely nothing has changed. Parents are still on waitlists and stressing all the time thinking ‘is my child going to get in? Can I go back to work?’”
She said the government needs to do more to address the challenges that many families are experiencing. “We hope that you hear all of us parents and you’re able to provide affordable, quality child care for all of us.”
YWCA Metro Vancouver advocates for universal child care that is flexible, high-quality and affordable to support families and communities. We operate three $10-a-day early learning and child care centres and one free drop-in centre. Our three centres have an average waitlist of 20 months and we know that more systemic change is needed to improve access.
Lorraine
Lorraine Evans, Director of Child Care Services at the YWCA, acknowledges the barriers parents and caregivers face in finding safe, affordable and high-quality child care. She understands that not having enough spaces results in unacceptably long waitlists and that there is a lack of affordable child care due to limited $10-a-day spaces. Lorraine knows the existing challenges regarding the recruitment and retention of qualified early childhood educators also need to be addressed.
“There's a lot more work to do to eliminate the barriers families face to accessing child care and particularly affordable child care. We hope that the provincial government will follow through on its promise of $10-a-day child care for all British Columbians.”
She said everyone should care about access to quality affordable child care because it allows for dads and particularly moms to stay in the workforce, strengthen the economy and it's also a good investment in our collective future.
“I call on you to support child care even if you don’t have children now because it takes a village to raise children and we're all community members. What we do together helps children grow into well-adjusted adults who will contribute back to the community.”
Child care isn’t just a personal issue, and they are not raised in isolation. The well-being of our children shapes our communities, our workforce and our future. When families can access affordable care, parents can work, educators can thrive and children get the strong start they deserve. This Child Care Month, let’s move beyond celebration and call for real action. Every family in BC deserves access to quality, affordable child care.
