Province to add thousands more $10-a-day child care spaces

The provincesays more families in B.C. will save thousands of dollars per year as more than 1,370 more child-carespaces are added to the $10-a-dayChildCareBC program.

"We doubled the number of $10-a-day spaces earlier this year and will be nearly doubling yet again by the end of 2022, with 1,373 spaces added this month alone," said Katrina Chen, B.C.'s minister of state for child care.

The program reduces the average cost of full-time, centre-based infant care at participating facilitiesto $200 a month, saving families approximately $800 a month per child on average, according to the statement.

The province says more$10-a-day spaces will be created over the next few months.

By the end of the year, the program will expandfrom 6,500 spaces in April to approximately 12,500.

The federal government has promisedto contribute$3.2 billion for child care in B.C. over five years.

The newly approvedspaces are being offered at 18 child-care centres acrossB.C., bringing the total numberto nearly 8,200, it said.

In addition, it said approximately 69,000 families will be able to take part in a program to reduce fees by up to $550 per childper monthat centres that are not part of the $ 10-a-day program startingDec. 1.