Excerpts
B.C.’s premier says the future of the province’s $10-a-day child-care program is in Ottawa’s hands.
David Eby says the federal government will be making a “significant decision” on child care following a Jan. 30 meeting of provincial, territorial and federal ministers responsible for child care.
That has child-care providers in B.C. worried about looming cuts to affordable care.
Eby says both the province and federal government are grappling with how to provide affordable child care while under “financial strain”.
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“And if that is not the federal government's intent, what does the program look like going forward? We need to have access and affordability but we also need sustainability.”
Eby was responding to a letter from nearly two dozen female leaders, including former NDP child-care minister Katrina Chen, accusing him of walking away from the promise of universal affordable child care and planning a return to what they call a “failed market-based, income-testing approach.”
The NDP, under former premier John Horgan, promised in 2017 and 2020 to achieve universal $10-a-day child care by 2028.
Sharon Gregson with Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. says that progress has “stalled under David Eby.”
Deferring to the federal government, Gregson says, is a “cop out.”
She says $10-a-day child care was a made-in-B.C. program launched before Ottawa came to the table with funding.
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