Dear Editor,

November 20 is National Child Day in Canada. It also is the beginning of 10 Days of Action for $10 a Day Child Care here in B.C., giving us the opportunity to highlight the benefits of high quality $10 a day child care for children, women鈥檚 equality, communities and the economy.

In the mid 2000鈥檚 the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C and the Early Childhood Educators of B.C. publicly put forth a framework for $10 a day child care. In 2018 the provincial government initiated their own plan, grounded in the principle that no family will pay more than $200 per month for full time care. As child care is often the second highest expense for young families next only to housing, full implementation of this initiative is critical to the health and well-being of young families.

Here in the Comox Valley, we are fortunate enough to have hundreds of $10 a day child care spaces meaning that hundreds and hundreds of families are seeing a significant decrease in the cost of child care, often saving well over $1000.00 per month. As and early childhood educator I have seen first hand the difference this has made in terms of quality of life, affordability and reduction in child poverty rates for families of young children. Within the $10 a Day Plan we have also seen wage top-ups for early childhood educators and an expansion of available child care spaces in the Valley.

While all of this is good news, we still have a long to go to create a sustainable, equitable, fully funded system of early care and learning in our Province. What we need is more access to post secondary education and a fair wage grid for those who care for and educate our youngest citizens. We need guaranteed funding to insure the inclusion of all children regardless of their developmental spectrum. We also need to expand the number of $10 a Day facilities and high quality child care spaces. Creating a social system of early care and learning takes time, political will and collaboration between federal, provincial and municipal governments. Furthermore, we now have child care and K to 12 education under one Ministry (Ministry of Education and Child Care).

It鈥檚 time for early care and learning to take its place among B.C.鈥檚 funded social structures like public education and health care. To show your support e-mail your local MLA or the Premier and use #10adaychildcare in your social media posts. Together we can make this a reality!

Charlene Gray, Early Childhood Educator, Early Years Advocate