Today Minister of Children and Family Development, and Minister of State for Child Care issued a joint statement regarding a milestone reached under the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative.
Katrine Conroy, Minister of Children and Family Development, and Katrina Chen, Minister of State for Child Care, have issued the following joint statement to celebrate reaching a milestone under the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative:
“After just four months, the new Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative has been embraced by both parents and providers. So far, nearly 3,000 providers have applied for the initiative, with 87% of those now approved. This means more than 50,000 licensed child care spaces are now receiving funding.
The Surrey Board of Trade’s Social Policy Team is proactive in the development of policies for not only businesses, but the development of society as a whole to enhance livability. The team, a group of Surrey Board of Trade volunteers, tackles many non-traditional issues such as children and families, homelessness, poverty, health care, the integration of marginalized people, and public safety – all through a business lens – to ensure that all benefit form a strong economy.
“Ensuring that families can access affordable childcare creates a strong economy by allowing parents to enter the workforce,” said Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade. “When families win, we all win. There is of course more work to do to increase the sustainable continuum of child care spaces that Surrey needs.”
The Surrey Board of Trade has had many policies from both a social policy and economic lens such as the continuum of affordable housing for workers. Whether the issue is affordable housing, or affordable child care, the Surrey Board of Trade will continue to instigate change for social policy that will improve the economy.
Further, the Surrey Board of Trade is a member of the Surrey Child Care Task Force whose mandate is to find solution pathways to the following chronic challenges that Surrey faces in its attempts to develop a universal childcare system:
• Lack of affordable child care;
• Insufficient child care spaces to meet existing needs and future growth;
• Limited out of school care or in proximity to schools;
• Severe shortage of early childhood educators;
• Quality concerns of Early Childhood Education (ECE) training programs
• Limited local opportunities to receive ECE training programs;
• Limited space for children with financial or accessibility challenges;
• Limited capacity of local systems to support a child care system;
• Gaps in support programs;
• Historical, lack of senior government investment in a comprehensive child care system;
and
• Limited capacity for not for profits to deliver child care services.
For more information on the press release go to: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018CFD0053-001623
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