Vancouver has vastly increased early child-care spots but is still short thousands of spaces

City staff say Vancouver now has 6,839 licensed child-care spaces for children aged 0 to five — with another 3,000 currently being built — but it's still not enough to meet provincial and federal guidelines for access to full-time child care.

Child-care support groups are still commending Vancouver as a provincial leader in adding full-day child-care spaces, saying municipalities are desperately trying to make up for years of underfunding from other levels of government.

"Senior levels of government have only recently come to the table with more substantial capital and operating funding," said Sharon Gregson, a spokesperson with the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., which is a membership-based group that advocates for an accessible, affordable child-care system.

"We all know that there are still waiting lists for child care, and I hear almost daily from families who are struggling."

City of Vancouver senior social planner Mark Pickersgill updated the city's Standing Committee on City Finance and Services about the latest child-care space numbers on Tuesday.

"A drastic change from where it was," he said about what is available now compared to six years ago.

In 2018, there were 4,837 child-care spots for children aged 0 to five in Vancouver, according to a presentation to councillors. As for 2024, there were 6,839, a 41 per cent increase.

Pickersgill said that currently, there were 3,000 spaces in development, with 988 of them to open in the next four years.

"Again, I think a really strong testament to the work the City of Vancouver has been doing in all kinds of different capacities to streamline regulations, working with development and others … to create more child care and the city taking on more opportunities from senior levels of government to get funding."

Senior levels of government want cities to be able to provide 59 per cent of children access to full-time child care. To hit that mark, Vancouver would have to bring around 4,100 spaces online for a total of 14,000 in the city.

'Won the lottery'

Nazma Lee, a Vancouver lawyer and member of the women's advisory committee, told councillors on Tuesday she cried tears of joy in 2012 when she learned a child-care spot was available for her family, allowing her to go back to work.

"I had literally won the lottery," she said. "My kids thrived in that environment, and I thrived professionally."

On Tuesday, she spoke in favour of councillors approving the adoption of provincial child-care design guidelines to overwrite the city's for all new city-owned child-care facilities.

Staff said the changes were "relatively minor," with the harmonization being beneficial to increasing child-care spaces more quickly.

"I urge the city to continue to show leadership, to be innovative and to centre child care in planning discussions," said Lee.

Modular child-care buildings

In 2018, B.C. brought into force its Child Care B.C. plan, which has, so far, brought online 23,000 new licensed child-care spaces in the province.

The province has access to $3.4 billion in federal funding over the next three years and has also committed an additional $2.6 billion from 2024 to 2026, according to the city.

Councillors pressed staff over initiatives to find ways to build more child-care spaces in residential areas and also underserved areas of the city, such as in South and East Vancouver.

Another way the city is seeking to quickly add more child-care spaces is by finding publicly-owned sites where prefabricated or modular child-care centres could be erected.

Coun. Lisa Dominato said it was essential for Vancouver to have adequate child-care spaces if it were to continue to attract families and workers to the city.

"It certainly can be a deciding factor. If you don't think you're going to find child care, then why would you come here?" she said.  "It is critical to having a thriving economy as well — and to gender equity."