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Child care in the BC budget

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Author: 
various
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Article
Publication Date: 
19 Feb 2013

 

BC tabled the 2013 budget on February 19, 2013.

Within the balanced budget, government is introducing new measures to benefit B.C. families and help make family life more affordable, including:

 

...A new B.C. Early Childhood Tax Benefit will provide $146 million to approximately 180,000 families with children under six years old, effective April 1, 2015. Families with young children can receive up to $55 per child, per month. Most will receive the full amount, while those with family incomes between $100,000 and $150,000 a year will receive a partial benefit. About 90 per cent of B.C. families with young children are expected to be eligible.

 

B.C.'s new Early Years Strategy will invest $76 million over three years to support the creation of new child care spaces and improve the quality of child care and early years services. Included within this, $32 million will support the creation of new child care spaces and $37 million will improve the quality of services available.

Related links:

Time for B.C. to invest in $10 a day child care. Opinion: Families squeezed between unaffordable housing and exorbitant child care, Vancouver Sun, 18 Feb 13

Budget 2013 'not very good for young people': advocates, The Tyee, 18 Feb 13

Affordable child care promised in Tuesday budget, but $10-a-day system ruled out, Times Colonist, 16 Feb 13

Child-focused B.C. budget programs come cheap: Christy Clark's 'families first' focus gets big portion of little government has to spend, CBC News, 20 Feb 13

The families agenda for British Columbia: Building a sustainable quality early years strategy to support BC families, Government of BC, 20 Feb 12