Questions surround NDP daycare licensing pledge
Natalia Malta has been operating a small daycare out of her home in east Vancouver for 12 years.
Under regulations, licence-notrequired daycares such as hers can care for a maximum of two kids in addition to the operator’s own children.
On some days, that’s all Malta and her mom want to tackle. But on-and-off, they ’ve toyed with the idea of becoming a licensed childcare facility so they can take in more kids.
“We were thinking about it, but it was too much what (authorities) were asking” in terms of the requirements to get licensed, Malta said. “So we are totally fine at this point, but we think about it from time to time.”
Malta wasn’t aware of Premier John Horgan’s throne speech pledge this week to encourage legal, unlicensed daycares to get licensed, but said she’ll be watching to see how the government rolls out its promised affordable childcare plan.
In a speech Tuesday promising the largest investments in child care in the province’s history, Horgan said his government will work “to propel the conversion of unlicensed spaces to licensed, regulated child care, so that more parents can benefit from the savings government is providing.”
Details were sparse, leaving many advocates reading between the lines to gauge the impact on childcare providers and on affordability.
Pam Preston, executive director for Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre, said getting unlicensed centres licensed ensures quality and improves accountability — but it’s not going to create more spaces for families.
“There’s no net benefit to spaces,” she said. “It means we can track you, you can get funding … but it doesn’t mean there’s more new spaces being built.”
Some of the unlicensed daycares, including Malta’s, are registered with one of 41 Child Care Resource and Referral programs in B.C., which means they must complete security and background checks and first aid certification, complete a minimum of 20 hours of professional development and participate in a health and home safety assessment. In return, they get training, a support network and become eligible for a subsidy.
There are 468 active, registered licence-not-required daycares in B.C., including about 70 in Vancouver that are registered through Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre.
Preston said she does not sense a big untapped desire for unlicensed daycares to get licensed. In urban centres such as Vancouver, some daycares operate out of rentals or apartments and don’t have space to grow, meaning there’s no incentive for them to seek licensing.
According to government figures, 28 unlicensed daycares became licensed in 2016-17, while 124 signed up to be registered licencenot-required daycares.
Preston said for government to be able to provide subsidies to child-care centres, they’ll need to be on the government’s radar either as licensed or at least registered, which could account for the push to get more licensed spaces.
But it is unclear what impact this will have on unlicensed daycares that can’t or don’t want to take in more than two children.
Would parents flock to licensed, regulated facilities with their subsidies and more affordable rates, leaving unlicensed centres to languish, Preston asked.
“If you’re not in the system, you’ll lose kids. That may be part of the deal.”
But, she added, that would be a shame, because, “You still want quality. You don’t want parents to leave a good program just for the sake of a cheaper program.”
Preston said if the city wants to push unlicensed places to get their licence, it would need to recruit more licensing officers at the health authorities to conduct inspections.