$10/day child care at Kiwassa’s Hastings Park Child Care Centre
On November 9, 2018, the provincial government announced the launch of their latest child care initiative, Universal Child Care Prototype Sites ($10/day child care). These sites will test and evaluate funding and operational models that will help move British Columbia towards a universal child care system.
We are thrilled to announce that Kiwassa’s own Hastings Park Child Care Centre was chosen to be one of 50 sites across the Province that can now offer this program to families. This means that parents at Hastings Park are now paying a maximum of $200/month for childcare, regardless of the child’s age. As you can imagine, this has made a tremendous difference to families and their quality of life. This is an opportunity for us to inform government on what works, what needs improvement and what the effects of universal child care are for families, communities, and operators. Prototype Sites will help government develop a funding model that will inform the implementation of universal child care over the next ten years.
The prototype will be in effect until March 31, 2020, and the hope is that after that, it will be expanded throughout the province. Through the Province’s Early Learning and Child Care Agreement (ELCC) with the Government of Canada, the Province is investing $60 million to convert around 2,500 licensed child care spaces – with a priority on infant and toddler spaces – into low-cost spaces at existing child care facilities across B.C. Approved sites are on the leading edge of one of the largest social policy changes in B.C.’s history. Being selected as a prototype site is an opportunity for providers of licensed child care to help build the future of child care in B.C. We are thrilled and honoured to be one of these sites and be able to offer such an amazing quality (and now) affordable child care program to Kiwassa families.
Thank you to Hon. Katrine Conroy, Minister of Children and Family Development, Hon. Katrina Chen, Minister of State for Child Care, and Hon. Shane Simpson, MLA for Vancouver East and Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, for their support and leadership to move this work forward. Kiwassa would like to also share our appreciation for tireless advocacy efforts of organizations, networks and individuals including Sharon Gregson, Lynell Anderson, Rita Chudnovsky, Sheila Davidson, Mab Oloman, Gyda Chud, and Adrienne Montani.
To be added to the Kiwassa Child Care waiting list, please go to: https://www.kiwassa.ca/our-services/childcare-programs/ and check the website often for updates on our programs.
More information about the prototype sites is available here: www.gov.bc.ca/childcareprototypesites
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