Deadline extended to opt in to B.C. child care fee-reduction program
VANCOUVER — The B.C. government has extended its deadline for child-care operators to opt in to a program that is meant to decrease the cost of daycare for parents.
The move follows outcry from some child-care operators, who have said the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative — part of the province’s three-year, billiondollar child-care plan — was rushed and the program details unclear.
“I don’t know a single provider who is against the idea of universal care or subsidized care,” said Pamela Wallberg, who operates Richmond’s Alderwood House Preschool and is on the executive board of the B.C. Child Care Owners Association. “Everybody I’ve heard from is absolutely for finding a way to make this work and improving B.C.’s child care industry, but the government has just botched it.”
The initiative promises 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. The money goes to the daycare, and the savings are passed on to families.
The initial deadline to apply to opt in for April 1 implementation was March 27 — about a week after contracts were delivered. That deadline has been extended to April 20.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development said the deadline extension will allow parents to save as of April 1, while giving providers extra time to have their questions answered and decide whether to apply to opt in. The program is not mandatory and operators can opt in at any time, though after April 20 it will not be retroactive.
“Having government invest in families and child care is brand-new territory for providers and parents, so it’s understandable that questions have come up about how it will work,” said Katrina Chen, minister of state for child care, in a statement.
Chen said that as of last Friday, 765 contracts had been processed, with 85 per cent of those opting in to the fee-reduction program.
Amanda Worms, a child-care operator in Kelowna who is also a spokesperson for the B.C. Child Care Owners Association, said that operators were promised they’d receive the contract between March 16 and 18, but it didn’t land in their email inboxes until March 19.
Some received links that didn’t work and were not able to access their contract until the end of the week. Those who read their contracts were often confused by the language, the figures and the contradictions between the contracts and the information they were receiving from the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
Worms said a number of operators have shown the contract to lawyers, and they told her that they were advised to ask the province for an addendum or rewritten contract before they consider signing, and to opt out if they do not receive one.
“This was so rushed that there’s no possible way [the province] could have organized it properly. You can tell that just from reading the contract, when you reference sections that don’t even exist and it makes it through your legal department, and you’ve given us one rate when there’s four,” Worms said. “It just speaks volumes to how poorly thought out this was.”
The association’s two main concerns are around the amount of money childcare operators will receive from the province and their ability to increase fees.
Worms said their interpretation is that the contract, as written, has operators receiving less money than they will be required to offer as a discount to parents. She said information sessions and lists of frequently asked and answered questions have not clarified this discrepancy.
“That’s where a lot of this frustration has come from: A lot of information is not consistent,” Worms said.
When it comes to rate increases, Worms said the goal is not to gouge parents. She said she and operators she has spoken with would like to increase the wages of their workers and improve their programs, which they can’t do without increasing rates.
The contract, she believes, prohibits rate increases unless they are preapproved by the ministry.
Deb Bryant, CEO of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of B.C., a nonprofit that has more than 1,000 licensed child-care spaces, said her organization will opt in to the fee-reduction initiative.
“We expect that this is the first of many steps toward building an affordable, accessible, quality child-care system in B.C., and we are ready and willing to participate,” she said.