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Vancouver has vastly increased early child-care spots but is still short thousands of spaces

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Support groups still commending city as a leader in building spaces for ages 0-5
Author: 
Pawson, Chad
Format: 
Article
Publication Date: 
5 Feb 2025
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Excerpt

City staff say Vancouver now has 6,839 licensed child-care spaces for children aged 0 to five — with another 3,000 currently being built — but it's still not enough to meet provincial and federal guidelines for access to full-time child care.

Child-care support groups are still commending Vancouver as a provincial leader in adding full-day child-care spaces, saying municipalities are desperately trying to make up for years of underfunding from other levels of government.

"Senior levels of government have only recently come to the table with more substantial capital and operating funding," said Sharon Gregson, a spokesperson with the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., which is a membership-based group that advocates for an accessible, affordable child-care system.

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