National

Changes To Popular Child Care Fund To Maximize Spaces

11 Feb, 2020 06:10 PM

In the past 15 months, the Province has supported the fastest creation of licensed child care spaces in B.C.’s history.

Government has provided funding for more than 10,400 new spaces through its three space-creation initiatives – the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund, Start-Up Grants and neighbourhood learning centres – with thousands more to come.

Due to the success of the biggest of these programs, the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund, the Province is updating guidelines and sharing best practices with applicants to better support projects in communities with an acute need for new child care spaces.

Starting Feb. 10, 2020, the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund will accept applications through two application windows. The first of these will open Feb. 10 and end May 11, 2020. Successful applicants will be notified by August 2020. A second application window is scheduled to open in November 2020, ending Feb. 10, 2021.

This approach enables the Province to compare applications over a set timeframe. This will allow funding to be targeted to organizations and communities best able to meet child care shortages in their areas and to prioritize applications that create child care spaces that will remain community assets for the long term. As well, communities that have recently completed child care needs assessments will have more time to develop targeted applications based on what they have learned.

In addition, to ensure funding is being used for new licensed child care spaces in as many communities as possible, and based on best practices identified through the 15 months of the program, the Province will prioritize projects with a cost per space of $40,000 or less.

Applicants will be required to demonstrate:

the link between their proposed project and the need within their community;

reference to a community child care plan or needs assessment, such as those created through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities’ Community Child Care Planning Grant program; and

that any necessary professional, administrative and consulting services total no more than 15% of the total provincially funded project cost.

Prev Next

MORE National ARTICLES

Few Incentives In Spending-Heavy B.C. Budget, Global Downturn Worries Business

VICTORIA — British Columbia's budget pays too little attention to the potential impacts of a slowing global economy and a shifting housing market, business leaders say.

Few Incentives In Spending-Heavy B.C. Budget, Global Downturn Worries Business

Proposed Edible Pot Rules Are Wasteful, Would Leave Products Tasteless: Critics

Canada's proposed edible pot regulations would result in tasteless products wrapped in wasteful packaging, shutting out medical patients and fuelling a continued black market, critics say

Proposed Edible Pot Rules Are Wasteful, Would Leave Products Tasteless: Critics

Man Arrested, Charged In String Of Four Bank Robberies Over Four Hours In Surrey

Richard Orr, 24, Is Charged With Four Counts Of Robbery And Remains In Custody Following The Four-Hour Spree On Feb. 12.

Man Arrested, Charged In String Of Four Bank Robberies Over Four Hours In Surrey

Alcohol Policies Fizzle For Canadian Governments As Harms Overflow: Reports

VICTORIA — Two new studies say the federal and provincial governments must do more to reduce alcohol consumption after determining damages from drinking have surpassed tobacco use.

Alcohol Policies Fizzle For Canadian Governments As Harms Overflow: Reports

B.C. Review Board Says Man Allan Schoenborn Who Killed Kids A Threat, But Outings To Be Mulled

Schoenborn, who's now 50 years old, has been held at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital since before a 2010 court decision that found him not criminally responsible for killing his daughter and two sons.