With new cuts to child care fees coming into effect in December 2022, an online tool is available to help families estimate the amount of savings they will see on their bill.
The estimator can be found here: https://mychildcareservices.gov.bc.ca/ccfri-estimator
Starting Dec. 1, 2022, parents in British Columbia will save as much as $550 more per month for each child they have in participating licensed child care facilities. This funding will lower fees for children kindergarten age and younger by up to $900 per month.
Families do not need to apply to get these fee reductions. Instead, the Province directly funds participating child care providers, which discount the amount charged to families for child care.
These additional savings, which build on earlier fee cuts introduced as part of the Province’s $2.7-billion investment in ChildCareBC since 2018, are funded through the $3.2-billion Canada-British Columbia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement 2021 to 2026.
In addition to cutting child care fees for families, the B.C. government, with support from the federal government, has moved approximately 8,200 child care spaces to the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program as of November 2022, with more coming soon. Together, these programs bring child care costs for families to $10 a day or less for about 20,000 spaces.
Further support for families earning as much as $111,000 per year may be available through the Affordable Child Care Benefit, which, when combined with the new fee reductions, means some families will pay little or nothing for their child care.