David Eby defends family’s use of $10-a-day child care, says they donated to the centre

B.C. Premier David Eby says his family donated to their child care centre after using the provincial government’s $10-a-day program. He was responding to criticism from the B.C. Conservatives, who say his higher-income household benefited from scarce subsidized spaces while other parents struggled to find affordable care. The dispute emerged after Eby confirmed to media on Monday that his family had accessed the program through a YMCA child care centre. He later said one of his children was already attending the centre when it became a designated $10-a-day facility a couple of years ago. Eby said the family chose to donate because they felt they did not need the discount and wanted the centre to provide other supports for families in the community. His youngest child now attends the same centre, and the family plans to donate again. Eby’s statement did not disclose either donation’s amount or say whether the contributions equalled the savings the family received.

Conservative candidate Margareta Dovgal, who is running in Vancouver-Yaletown, criticized Eby for benefiting from a program his government has not made widely available. The B.C. Conservatives pointed to Eby’s annual earnings of more than $227,000 as premier and his wife’s work as a physician. Dovgal said nobody begrudged the couple’s success and that the party wanted more British Columbians to succeed. She said families would not accept a premier who promised $10-a-day child care, failed to deliver it, then took one of the scarce spots while a single mother working two jobs remained on a wait-list. The program has no income limit: families at participating facilities can receive the reduced rate regardless of earnings, with regular full-time care costing no more than $200 a month per child. The Conservatives provided no evidence that Eby received preferential treatment in securing care. The party says designated $10-a-day spaces make up about 10 per cent of the province’s child care spots.

Designated $10-a-day spaces are only one part of B.C.’s subsidy system. Other participating providers receive funding to reduce parents’ fees, and eligible families can get additional income-based assistance through the Affordable Child Care Benefit. These programs can bring some families’ costs to $10 a day or less outside designated facilities. Access to the designated program remains an issue, however. Earlier this year, the provincial government paused the addition of new providers while maintaining support for existing participants.

The BC NDP questioned whether a Conservative government would maintain existing fee protections and subsidies. The party says its fee reductions have cut average child care costs by about half, or approximately $7,200 a year, and warned that reducing subsidies or removing fee protections could increase parents’ bills. That warning concerned possible policy changes; the Conservatives have not announced a decision to eliminate those supports. The BC NDP also pointed to comments by Conservative child care critic and Chilliwack North candidate Heather Maahs, including her support for a social media post proposing a per-child tax credit instead of subsidized spaces. Maahs argued that government funding disproportionately supports licensed child care and does not adequately help families relying on parents, relatives or other arrangements. She said public policy should support families in all their diversity rather than steer them towards one government-preferred model of care.

During the 2017 provincial election, John Horgan’s BC NDP promised to create a universal $10-a-day child care system over 10 years, making affordable care available to every family that wanted or needed it. The plan would first cover children under two, then expand to other children below kindergarten age; families earning less than $40,000 a year would receive free child care. A separate federal-provincial agreement signed in 2021 set a target of reducing average fees for regulated child care for children under six to $10 a day by 2025-26. It did not guarantee every family an available $10-a-day space.

The provincial election’s general voting day is Saturday, Oct. 24. Advance voting runs from Friday, Oct. 16, to Wednesday, Oct. 21, overlapping with municipal elections across B.C. on Saturday, Oct. 17.