The province is funding more than 5,000 new child-care and after-school program spaces, as well as early childhood educator bursaries in 2017-18.
Based on feedback from the child-care community, the government is launching a new two-stage application process to support the creation of up to 4,100 licensed child-care spaces.
Details on program information sessions, applications and criteria will be available online on March 15 at: www.gov.bc.ca/childcaremajorcapitalfunding.
“We know that parents in some B.C. communities are having a hard time finding care for their children, and we’re committed to funding high-quality child care throughout the province. This funding will allow us to support the creation of nearly as many child-care spaces in one year as we have over the past three years combined,” said minister of children and family development Stephanie Cadieux.
Non-profit child-care providers can apply for up to $500,000, and private child-care providers can apply for up to $250,000 to help build new child-care spaces in their communities. Priority for these new spaces will be given to organizations that will:
- Create spaces for infants and toddlers, the type of spaces for which there is highest demand throughout the province.
- Create spaces on school grounds, where children can smoothly transition from early years programs, to the classroom, to after-school care.
- Create spaces that are co-located with other family-support programs in community-based settings, including BC Early Years Centres, recreation centres and family-resource programs.
This year, priority funding criteria has been extended to applications for spaces that:
- Create child-care spaces in Indigenous communities. (New)
- Create spaces in the workplace, where employers can support their employees by providing child-care resources on-site. (New)
- Create child-care spaces in child development centres that support children with special needs. (New)
The process for the 1,000 before and after-school recreation spaces will be opened separately. Details will be available shortly.
For more information on the Child Care Major Capital funding program, including applications and criteria, visit: www.gov.bc.ca/childcaremajorcapitalfunding