Nearly two weeks after details of an announcement on federal child care funding leaked out, Ottawa is set to officially announce new money for British Columbia on Friday morning. North Vancouver MP Jonathan Wilkinson, on behalf of Federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jean-Yves Duclos, will be formally signing a $153 million child care agreement on behalf of the federal government.
The money will be targeted towards creating 1,370 new infant/toddler child care spaces through capital grants. It will also be used to provide operational funding to care providers in order to run low-cost spaces and reduce parent fees for at least 1,786 kids.
The funding will also be targeted towards existing systems to expand Indigenous child care to create on- and off-reserve programming and enhance inclusive programs for approximately 7,278 children with special needs.
B.C. government cabinet members Katrine Conroy and Katrina Chen will be on hand for Friday morning’s announcement. The event was originally supposed to be two weeks ago, and questions were raised about whether it was postponed because B.C. was standing in the way of the federally-approved Trans Mountain pipeline.
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But even though the feud between Alberta and B.C. is dying down following British Columbia’s decision to get the courts involved, B.C. Premier John Horgan has argued the delay never had anything to do with the spat.
“To my knowledge it is a scheduling error, and I don’t think it is anything more than that,” Horgan said.
The provincial government has put a heavy focus on child care. The federal money helps fund the province’s ambitious plan, with includes two new subsidies for parents — one that will directly lower fees at child care facilities, the other, a new care benefit of up to $1,250 per child.
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But the catch is that the provincial programs are for licensed care providers only, in an attempt to get unlicensed providers into the provincial fold.
On Thursday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said the province is taking steps to try to speed up the licensing process.
“There’s going to be new resources for licensing because there’s going to be more licensed daycares to oversee, and there’s a licensing process that requires more people, so we are moving on that,” Dix said.
With files from Liza Yuzda
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