Imagine paying $1,300 a month for childcare.
That’s the new reality in Vancouver, says a report out this week from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Full-time childcare for a toddler in Vancouver now costs $1,292 per month or $15,500 a year — a huge chunk of change for the average family.
When housing costs are out of this world and childcare eats up $15,000 in after-tax money, the living isn’t easy for young families.
To put those fees into perspective, consider the tuition at Vancouver’s most prestigious private schools. Full-time tuition for B.C. students at York House is $20,600 a year; at Saint George’s it’s $21,585. Tuition at the University of British Columbia for a full-time undergraduate arts student $5,190 a year — a veritable bargain compared to daycare costs for toddlers.
Vancouver’s median childcare fees are second only to Toronto, across Canada, the CCPA study found. For infants, fees are even higher at $1,360 per month, while for preschoolers the fees average $950 a month for full-time care.
“Child care fees in most of Canada are still outpacing inflation, and for many they were too expensive to begin with,” says CCPA senior economist David Macdonald. “On top of that, wait lists are nearly universal.”
Those sky-high fees and never-ending wait lists may be contributing factors towards falling enrolment in Vancouver public schools. As enrolment grows elsewhere in the province and skyrockets in family-friendly suburbs such as Surrey, the number of kids in Vancouver public schools is shrinking.
And the kids who aren’t showing up to public school in Vancouver aren’t all registering in private schools. The actual number of kids living in Vancouver is dropping, the 2016 Census results show. Vancouver has about 5,000 fewer kids than expected. Children make up just 11 per cent of Vancouver’s population, whereas in Surrey, kids account for nearly 18 per cent.
Despite fewer kids, 95 per cent of childcare centres in the city have a wait list, the study found.
There’s action on behalf of many government officials to try to remedy the shortage of spaces, although we’ve yet to see definitive action on fees.
Last week, the B.C. government announced $33 million for 91 organizations to build 3,806 new childcare spaces. Vancouver’s share was $3 million for 453 spaces.
“We are speeding up the creation of new child-care spaces to address years of pent-up demand for child care,” said Katrina Chen, minister of state for child care.
New Green Party school board trustee Judy Zaichkowsky put forward a motion that the VSB urge the government to require childcare as part of new or upgraded schools. Trustees were to discuss this motion this week.
The NDP campaigned on bringing in a $10 a day childcare program, but the plan was not part of its mid-year budget update.
In Montreal, median fees for all children younger than school age are just $168 a month, but that is because the government mandates the fees.
Affordable childcare is an essential part of reducing poverty among children, said Adrienne Montani, provincial coordinator for First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition.
Nearly 20 per cent of B.C. children aged 0 to 17 — that’s about 153,300 kids — live in poverty, B.C. First Call’s 2017 BC Child Poverty Report Card found. Fully half of single parent kids are poor, Montani said.
“We need that $10 a day plan and we’re hoping to see a beginning on that in the February budget,” she said.
A study earlier this year by economist Robert Fairholm found that the $10 a day childcare would make enough money to pay for building and operating the system.
“Full implementation of the $10 a day plan will have a significant and positive impact on GDP and create 69,100 jobs, even in the short term,” Fairholm said.
I think setting the rate at $10 a day might cost the province too dearly — I’d like to see a maximum rate of perhaps $25 a day, with reductions for people with low incomes.
B.C.’s Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, Shane Simpson, said in an interview that action can be expected in the February budget.
“I anticipate that you will see attention and some focus on childcare and housing in the February budget,” Simpson said.
Chen also promised that the budget would show a “long-term commitment to building a system of accessible, affordable and quality child care for families across the province.”
There are a lot of folks hoping that commitment is for more than just new spaces. Inordinate childcare fees must also be addressed if we hope to keep children in our city.
Tracy Sherlock writes about education and social issues. She can be reached at tracy.sherlock@gmail.com.
