Provincial minister of state for child care Katrina Chen was in Powell River on Tuesday, November 13, to meet with child-care providers. She did not come with any funding announcements for new or existing programs; she came to receive feedback.
“I'm here to learn, to hear from local providers, professionals, parents and educators about their experience,” said Chen, who is currently on a province-wide tour.
In Powell River, she visited Inclusion Powell River Society’s Cranberry Eco Preschool and, along with Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons, hosted approximately 25 people who attended a roundtable discussion.
“The issue that Powell River and all communities are facing is to make sure we have educators to be able to support the current spaces and the services that families are waiting for,” said Chen. “You have great partners locally but we definitely need to support the workforce, to make sure that there are more professionals coming into the sector to support needs.”
Simons said in a statement on November 6 that new funding for two day-care facilities on the lower Sunshine Coast will help make day care affordable for dozens of families there.
“For too long families on the lower Sunshine Coast have been struggling with exorbitant child-care costs,” stated Simons. “Today’s announcement marks our next step to make universal child care a reality for BC families.”
Inclusion Powell River Society chief executive officer Lilla Tipton said she was pleased that the government seems to be moving toward universal child care.
Powell River was not one of 53 organizations across the province that will be participating in the pilot project to deliver universal, affordable child care. The funding is a part of the BC government’s $60 million Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the Government of Canada.
“The pilot program is based on application,” said Chen. “We got applications from 300 different providers and we had an independent council that went through the process to select a diversity. I'm not so sure if there's any provider that applied from the upper coast.
Cranberry Eco Preschool was not eligible because it is not a day care, according to Tipton. She added that it surprised her that no other organization in Powell River applied.
Despite Powell River not being selected for the pilot program, parents can still apply for benefits including affordability measures to reduce fees depending on parent income, child care needs and child-care centres, according to Chen.
“If they're under the family income of $111,000 a lot of them can get $10 a day child care,” said Chen. “If they are under the income of $45,000 to $50,000 they may be able to pay no fees at all.”
