BC Government: Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative Information Session Summary
Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash
In a joint announcement by BC Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on December 2nd, reductions of up to $550 a month more per child in childcare costs in BC were launched, taking effect from December 1, 2022. The Ministry offered an information session on October 13th to assist providers in working with the new regulations.
The ChildCareBC plan, launched in 2018 to unite a patchwork of programs and services and to build childcare as a reliable core service, introduced savings initially of up to $350 per month per child. The new reductions build on that base and are hoped to offer assistance to approximately 69,000 families in BC.
2,450 new spaces have now been added to the $10aDay ChildCareBC program as of December 1st, meaning that there are now more than 10,500 $10aDay spaces in BC.
Providers representing 96% of eligible licensed spaces are participating in the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative program. All types of licensed childcare providers offering services to children five and younger are eligible to apply for the $10aDay program, including non-profit, private, home-based, publicly run and Indigenous-led providers. The cut-off for $10aDay program applications was August 18, 2022, and applications will continue to be reviewed until the target number of spaces is met.
The government site reports that so far in 2022-23, approximately 28,500 children received support through the Province’s Affordable Child Care Benefit each month. Parents making less than $45,000 can receive maximum funding. Parents making as much as $111,000 can receive partial funding.
The province is working in partnership with the Canadian federal government to a Canada-wide action plan, which includes a federal investment of $3.2 billion for BC between 2021 and 2026. Through the action plan, BC has committed to working with the Government of Canada toward a provincewide average of $10-a-day child care by March 2026 for children as old as five.
The information session offered on October 13th for providers and community partners, in anticipation of the launch, is one of attempts to make the process as intuitive and accessible as possible. The information session was recorded and is available on YouTube here.
The one-hour information session includes:
A recap of the September 23rd announcement
Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative:
Key activities for CCFRI providers
A demo of the CCFRI Estimator
Affordable Child Care Benefit:
Key activities for CCFRI providers
A demo of the new ACCB Fee Update form
A question-and-answer segment, along with links for follow-up.
As before, fee savings continue to be tiered, based on the age of the child and the type of care being accessed (group or family/in-home).
Limiting fee increases:
Participating providers will be able to raise their fees by up to 3% of the median cost of childcare in their region each year.
Funding boost for providers:
All providers reducing fees for families are receiving increased funding to cover the cost of participating and to help reduce the need to increase costs.