Burnaby will be getting 171 new child-care spaces as part of a $33-million provincewide investment, B.C.’s New Democrats announced on Monday.
The city will be getting roughly $1 million, with the money being split among three local child-care providers.
BrightStart Children’s Academy, which operates a facility at 2830 Bainbridge Ave., is receiving $250,000 to create 94 spaces. Of those, 24 will be infant and toddler spaces, 25 will be for kids aged three to five, 20 will be for preschoolers and 25 for school-aged children.
Smilestones Junior Kindergarten (4162 Norland Ave.) is getting $249,495 to create 40 spaces – 24 for infants and toddlers and 16 for children aged three to five.
The Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion’s (BACI) share is half a million dollars, enough to build 37 spaces (12 infant and toddler spaces and 25 spaces for kids in the three to five range) at Variety Children’s Centre.
Monday’s announcement, part of the 2017/18 budget that promises to invest $352 million in child care, benefits families in 52 communities across British Columbia, according to a government press release. The financial boost will create more than 3,800 child-care spaces.
“This announcement is really just a first step as we continue to address affordability issues, quality and accessibility,” said Katrina Chen, minister of state for child care and Burnaby-Lougheed MLA. “We still have a lot of work to do.”
When deciding where to allocate funding, Chen noted it was in areas that showed the greatest need, including infant and toddler spaces, spaces on school grounds or co-located in a community hub, Indigenous child-care spaces and employer-based spaces.
More than half of the spaces will be operated by non-profits and 20 per cent by Indigenous child-care providers, “the highest investment ever,” according to Chen.
“We need to create a system. Currently, B.C., unfortunately, does not have a (child-care) system that works. It was more patchwork,” she told the NOW.
She pointed to the upcoming budget in February and said more details will be forthcoming about what that system will look like. There will be a three-year implementation plan and a 10-year vision, said Chen.
Tanya Sather, co-executive director of BACI, called the funding “an outstanding opportunity.”
“We are absolutely thrilled. We think this will meet a huge demand for our community,” she said.
Right now, the average waitlist for infant and toddler spaces at Variety Children’s Centre can be anywhere between 100 and 200 families, noted Sather.
“It’s certainly a sector-wide issue.”
In September, BACI moved its Variety Children’s Centre from Banff Avenue to Cariboo Road. Sather said the provincial money will be used to develop the new site, with shovels hitting the ground in early spring and the new child-care spaces opening 12 to 18 months later. Current services will not be impacted by the redevelopment.
