Excerpts
British Columbia's Opposition party is pitching a child-care plan that includes giving money directly to families who are not part of the province's $10-a-day program.
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Money not equal to spaces: advocate
B.C. began testing $10-a-day child care with 1,300 spaces in 2018 as part of an election promise by the NDP. That number has grown to more than 15,000 as of March.
Under Falcon's proposed plan, families who don't have access to those spaces would get a top-up to give them the equivalent of paying $10 per day.
By way of example, the party said a family that pays $1,155 a month for child care would receive $955 a month until they could access an $10-a-day space.
But Sharon Gregson, provincial spokesperson for the $10-a-day child-care campaign who works with the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., says the plan is flawed.
"Making cash transfers to families doesn't magically mean there's going to be more child care out there for them to buy," she told CBC News.
"It is just a way to keep government costs getting higher without very much accountability back to taxpayers."
Minister of State for Child Care Mitzi Dean said the plan is "just not credible" and fees would go up under B.C. United.
"Their record is actually cutting subsidies for child care," Dean told Radio Canada. "And as a result, we ended up with really skyrocketing costs for child care for families across British Columbia, and families can't afford to go back to that kind of a model."
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