WHEREAS access to quality, affordable child care is vital to the social and economic well being of our communities and helps lay a foundation for success for childrens lives leading to social cost savings over generations; AND WHEREAS the cancellation of federal national childcare bi-lateral funding agreements has resulted in significant reductions in provincial funding for child care programs; the provincial government has steadily reduced child care funding since 2002; and the recent cuts to provincial spending are making matters worse for children, working families and employers at the same time as the economy is experiencing a labour shortage: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities call on the federal and provincial governments to fully restore child care funding to build a quality early learning child care system with affordable and reliable daycare for all children.
MINISTRY OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT The provincial contribution to child care funding has not been reduced as a result of the Early Learning and Child Care ELCC Agreement cancellation. Rather, we are refocusing those dollars to ensure programs that support our most vulnerable children and families, and significant enhancements we have made to those programs, are maintained. To that end, the Province of British Columbia Province will continue to fund more than 82,000 child care spaces plus 1,500 that are in the process of being developed. Since 2001, we have funded the creation of 3,300 new government-funded, licensed child care spaces across the Province. Further, we have committed to maintaining enhancements to the Child Care Subsidy Program that supports about 25,000 children in low, and middle income families, an annual investment of almost 130 million. In fact, we recently announced a subsidy rate increase for families with children aged six to 12 who receive subsidy for out-of-school child care. An estimated 13,300 children and 10,000 families will benefit from this subsidy rate increase. We have also committed to maintaining the Supported Child Development Program at enhanced levels that allow more than 5,500 children with special needs in this Province to participate in child care settings, an annual investment of 54 million. The provincial portion of the Child Care Operating Fund CCOF Program rate structure remains intact and in fact, as of July 1, 2007, there was a CCOF funding rate increase for children under three years of age to help mitigate the loss in ELCC funding. In January, we established that 40 million in existing ELCC funds would be issued to child care providers through the Provinces CCOF Program. The first 20 million of this has now been distributed for licensed group and family facilities to spend on quality improvements. The remaining 20 million was allocated to a trust to be distributed through the British Columbia Council for Families, a well-respected non-profit child and family serving organization with a strong 30-year history in this Province. The Council has been tasked with administering this fund in a way which is open, transparent and accountable to child care providers, governments and all British Columbians. Details of criteria and the distribution process are currently being finalized and will be communicated directly to the child care community in the near future. The provincial funding level for Child Care Resource and Referral CCRR centres is 9 million annually and we will be maintaining that level of funding on an ongoing basis. The 5 million federal contribution has been eliminated with the cancellation of the ELCC agreement. By maintaining the provincial contribution, we will continue to provide services for families and service providers in communities throughout the Province. As part of our ongoing efforts to enrich the healthy development of our Provinces youngest citizens, the government of British Columbia is also committed to supporting professional development and training opportunities and to helping early childhood educators across British Columbia maintain and enhance their skills. The Ministry of Children and Family Development recently granted 2 million to the Vancity Community Foundation to support professional development and training opportunities for child care providers in collaboration with Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia ECEBC. An additional 1.5 million was granted to the Vancity Community Foundation to establish a bursary fund for early childhood education students in collaboration with ECEBC. We are committed to increasing child care options for families and to expanding the number of safe, affordable child care spaces with programs that are sustainable, equitable and available to parents and child care providers throughout the Province. The government of British Columbia will continue to develop and maintain new and existing child care spaces through direct support to providers, major and minor capital investments, the CCOF program, and in its direct support of parents through subsidy payments on behalf of low- and moderate-income parents.