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Media Contacts

Ministry of Children and Family Development

Government Communications and Public Engagement
250 360-6597

Backgrounders

Childcare BC improves access to quality, affordable child care
  • Since launching in February 2018, the Childcare BC plan has helped parents save up to $1,600 a month, per child, for a total of nearly $510 million through the Affordable Child Care Benefit and Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative. As a result of these investments:
    • over 32,000 children have received child care for no more than $10 a day, including 156 in Port Hardy.
    • parents in Port Hardy have saved nearly $1.1 million.
  • In November 2018, Rainbow Country Daycare in Port Hardy was selected to deliver low-cost child care as a Childcare BC Universal Prototype Site. The centre provides 50 child care spaces: eight infant/toddler spaces, 17 for children aged three to five years, and 25 school age spaces.
  • In January 2020, the Province launched a new professional development program, which is giving early childhood educators access to more than 30 teaching specialists at community hubs throughout B.C., helping them to stay up to date on the latest child care teaching trends and techniques.
  • The Province has made significant investments to improve supports to B.C.’s early care and learning professionals, including approximately $16 million to provide more than 6,000 bursaries and workforce-development supports for students pursuing a career in child care.
  • To date, the Province has invested more than $27 million to provide more than 12,000 early childhood educators with a $1-per-hour wage enhancement, which increased to $2 an hour in April 2020. This includes more than $34,000 for early childhood educators in Port Hardy.