BC Gov News

This backgrounder contains additional information on projects in Victoria that will create 133 new licensed child care spaces in Victoria.

Infant Plus Daycare Centre

Infant Plus is creating 32 new licensed spaces – 16 infant/toddler spaces and 16 spaces for children aged 30 months to kindergarten – that will be operated by the James Bay Child Care Society. Through community partnerships, the centre will host early childhood education students from Camosun College for the practicum portion of their studies. The organization also partners with the Garth Homer Society and provides workplace opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities. The Infant Plus Daycare Centre is projected to open in April 2021.

Wendy Lowe, executive director, James Bay Child Care Society –

“It is exciting to see our goal of creating new child care spaces coming to fruition!  We will now be able to support more families and educators in our new facility. This provincial funding has provided us the opportunity to create a facility that will support the community for years to come.” 

Green House Studio

Green House Studio, which has been designed to merge interior and outdoor spaces, will create six new group multi-age spaces. To encourage healthy living and initiate learning explorations, children will be taken for daily walks to local parks, beaches and nearby green spaces. Parents will be able to view their child’s experiences and processes through a secure blog. San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training will be provided to staff to enable them to properly teach the children Indigenous culture and programming. The centre is expected to open in September 2020.

Rebecca Chinn, owner, Green House Studio –

“Our aim is to create a beautiful, inspiring and inviting child care environment in which children learn through play. We have put much consideration into how the space functions as ‘the third teacher’ and how the children will engage with it to best support all areas of their development. The provincial funding has helped towards the completion of the project and we are excited to soon be offering a new Reggio-inspired creative program in our community.” 

Pacifica Housing Burnside

Through a collaboration with BC Housing, the City of Victoria, Burnside Gorge Community Association and School District 61, Pacifica Housing Advisory Association will be transforming the former Burnside Elementary School play field into a housing development, child care centre and urban park for low- and middle-income families living in the Greater Victoria area. The child care centre will include 59 new spaces – 12 infant/toddler spaces, 25 spaces for children aged 30 months to school-age and 22 school-age spaces – with an estimated completion date of late fall 2022.

Pacifica Housing Oak Park 2

Twelve end-of-life townhouses will be replaced with 81 new affordable housing units and an onsite child care centre for low- and middle-income families living in Langford. The child care centre will include 36 new spaces – 12 infant/toddler spaces and 24 spaces for children aged 30 months to school-age – with an estimated completion date of spring 2021.

Carolina Ibarra, CEO, Pacifica Housing –

“Our goal is to create affordable, multicultural, socially stimulating and community minded environments that support families of all income levels on the path of success. This provincial funding means we can build spaces in integrated communities that will directly help more kids grow, learn and thrive in an environment that nurtures all aspects of their development.”

• 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 1,524 in Victoria.
  • parents in Victoria have saved more than $33 million.
• In November 2018, Fernwood Infant and Toddler Care/Fernwood Neighbourhood Childcare (FITCFNC) and Lexie’s Little Bears Child Care (LLBCC) in Victoria were selected to deliver low-cost child care as a Childcare BC Universal Prototype Site. FITCFNC provides 99 child care spaces: 20 infant/toddler spaces, 25 for children aged three to five years and 54 spaces for school-age children. LLBCC provides 57 child care spaces: 28 infant/toddler spaces and 29 for children aged three to five years.
• The City of Victoria received a $23,300 planning grant from the Community Child Care Planning Program, administered by the Union of B.C. Municipalities, to help identify their child care space needs.
• 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 $1.7 million for early childhood educators in Victoria.