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

21 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

2 days 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

3 days 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. 

"Most of the parents I know have been left behind."