EXCERPTS
The province is making funding available for the creation of 1,700-new licensed child care spaces.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development is offering grants up to $500,000 for non-profit child care providers and $250,000 for private child care organizations to go towards building new child care spaces.
But childcare advocate Sharon Gregson says the new money available does absolutely nothing to make it affordable for the average British Columbian.
“Child care really is one of those basic services like firehalls and libraries, something that our taxpayer dollar funds so that we can all have reasonable access.”
Instead, Gregson is calling for the creation of a $10-a-day program.
“We can learn from other jurisdictions around the kind of return on the investment that goes back to government. When child care spaces are affordable, so that more parents can enter the workforce, and start paying income taxes to both levels of government.”
The province is planning to introduce a total of 13,000 new licensed child care spaces by 2020.
-reprinted from News Talk 980 CKNW