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Media Contacts

Ministry of Children and Family Development

Government Communications and Public Engagement
778 587-3237

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 205 in West Kelowna and 68 in Lake Country.
    • Parents in West Kelowna and Lake Country have saved more than $3,745,000.
  • In November 2018, Little Scholars YMCA Playing to Learn Child Care and Preschool in Kelowna was selected to deliver low-cost child care as a Childcare BC Universal Prototype Site. The centre provides 53 child care spaces: eight infant/toddler, 35 for children aged three to five years and 10 preschool spaces: http://www.gov.bc.ca/childcareprototypesites
  • The City of Kelowna, in partnership with Lake Country, Peachland and West Kelowna, received a $97,000 grant from the Community Child Care Planning program, administered by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, to identify their specific child care space needs: www.ubcm.ca/EN/main/funding/lgps/child-care.html
  • 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 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 per hour in April 2020. This includes more than $99,000 for early childhood educators in West Kelowna and Lake Country.