Delays, fee hikes plague new B.C. daycare program

FEE REDUCTION: Province dealing with issues around delays and fee hikes by some child care providers

About 60 per cent of eligible daycare providers in B.C. have applied for a program aimed at reducing fees for parents, new figures from the provincial government show.

But the plan continues to be plagued by delays and concerns from child care providers, and parents who are frustrated they are not seeing the savings they anticipated.

The Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative is part of B.C.’s three-year, $1-billion plan, and is meant to cut daycare costs by up to $350 per month per space, depending on the age of the child and whether they are in licensed family or group daycare.

According to the Ministry of Children and Family Development, as of May 1, 1,766 of 2,850 eligible providers have applied to opt into the program (62 per cent), representing 39,384 spaces out of 49,136. That is up from the April 20 application deadline, when 54 per cent of eligible operators had applied.

Of those who have applied, 1,262 have been approved — that’s 44 per cent of all eligible operators, representing 25,309 spaces.

“This means parents have already begun benefiting from lower child care fees, with even more families expected to benefit as April applications continue to be processed and approved,” said Minister of Children and Family Development Katrine Conroy in a statement.

After the government announced the program in the 2018 budget, many families struggling with the high cost of daycare were eager to save hundreds of dollars per month. But parents complained when their daycares then raised fees, some between five and 15 per cent, right before the program rolled out. The government said it would investigate those fee hikes, and as such has now denied 56 providers.

Marianne Whitaker, owner of the Victoria-area Alphabet Zoo Learning Centre, is one of those providers. She said she was “in complete shock and horror” when her application was denied because of her moderate fee increase of 2.2 per cent (to $895 per month from $875) and four-percent increase for infant care.

Whitaker said at no point did the government inform her her application could be rejected. She had already given her clients the discount in April and has since had to ask for the money back to cover expenses. It left her feeling devastated and embarrassed.

She said the reason for rejection was her fee increase wasn’t in line with the daycare’s annual hikes. But she argues she has only been open for two years, and has never raised fees. This year’s increase, she said, had to do with ECE training, which cost $7,000 for each of her six employees, and much-needed upgrades to the facility.

She is confused because many other providers accepted into the program had higher fee increases, like Kids and Company, which raised its fees five per cent. That company sent a letter to parents Friday to say because of a backlog in the government approval process, it would not receive funding in time to give parents the savings in May.

The government would not comment on a specific case, but ministry spokesman Brendan Wright said the assessment process is “designed to be fair to all providers who apply to opt-in, while also ensuring that savings to parents are not unreasonably diluted by fee increases.”