As of February 1st, 2024, all of DDA’s eligible Child Development Centres (CDCs) can now offer the much anticipated $10-a-day child care program! That means seven of our eight locations are now under ChildCareBC’s initiative to make child care affordable for families in the Lower Mainland.
Berwick CDC, Playhouse CDC, Champlain CDC and Kid’s in General CDC joined our other sites Fraserview, Riverside, and Creekside – which started the program in 2022, as $10-a-day sites.
One of the main benefits of the program for BC families is to have access to high-quality, inclusive, flexible child care with fees capped at $10-a-day, with professional wages, benefits, and healthy working conditions for early Childcare Educators (ECEs).
“Our growth in childcare is limited only by our access to qualified ECE employees,” says DDA’s Executive Director Alanna Hendren. “Our families will only pay a maximum of two hundred a month for any of our child care spaces. Previously a full-time space was almost 13 hundred per month, a tremendous savings and affordability for our families.”
Being part of $10 a day also ensures secure funding for our child care programs and all wage increases from our bargained collective agreement are fully funded by MECC going forward. Also, being a selected applicant we must ensure to provide an inclusive and supportive environment for all children, including children with extra support needs, which is part of the selection process for all recipients receiving ongoing provincial child care funding.
The selection and application process was an arduous one, which required individual submissions and resubmissions for each site over 2-3 month period by DDA’s Finance and Child and Youth teams. Also, the City of Vancouver provided letters of support and confirmation of partnership to assist in this process. We feel though it was a long and at times frustrating process it was well worth it as the benefits certainly outweigh the difficulties – for our families and child care programs.
