Province invests $4 million for child care space in communities

Up to $4 million is being made available to communities across the province as a way to better the access to closer-to-home child care.

Municipalities and regional districts can apply and have more access to funding to buy land for child care centres and create new licensed child care spaces in their communities.

The announcement came at UBCM in Vancouver as an expansion to a program introduced last year. Previously, the maximum funding available was $1 million and local governments had just one fund to draw from, leaving them to cover the costs of land purchases and additional spaces for new child care projects.

In September 2018, the Province announced two new programs to help local governments plan for and create new licensed child care spaces — the Community Child Care Space Creation Program and the Community Child Care Planning Grant Program.

“We hear from local leaders about how important it is to have good quality child care to create a family-friendly community and attract employers to their cities and towns,” said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Children and Family Development. “We want to work with municipalities and regional districts to help make affordable quality child care accessible throughout the province. These grants are a strategic investment to ensure spaces are created where they’re needed most, strengthening communities and our economy.”

In July of this year, the Province increased the amount of funding available through the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund to $3 million per project for local governments. Along with the upwards to $1 million from the space creation program, communities can boost their child care accessibility.

According to Conroy, last year, the program created nearly 215 new child care locations for British Columbians to access.

“And now, it has the potential to create hundreds more — bringing relief to parents who are struggling to find child care.”