IN the face of a ‘milestone’ announcement of new child care spaces, B.C. Liberal Critic for Children and Family Development Laurie Throness released FOI documents on Tuesday that she says show despite their promise of 22,000 new childcare spaces over three years, the NDP has created only 5,717 completed new spaces in its first two years in office.

“The NDP always overpromise and underdeliver,” said Throness. “John Horgan is failing miserably to meet the targets he set and, at this rate, it would take the NDP over seven years to make good on their promise.”

The documents were obtained from Data BC and provide a line-by-line list of all spaces and daycares in BC that received grants by Child Care Operation Funding between July 2017 and July 2019. As of July 2019, the NDP were 16,283 spaces short when compared to what they promised in their February 2018 budget.

“John Horgan and the NDP are misleading the public by claiming these 10,400 spaces have been created,” said Throness. “This Government has yet to prove what has been built and occupied versus what has been announced and funded or announced and not funded. John Horgan and the NDP’s plan is rife with empty promises and inadequate progress updates and families depending on these vital services deserve better.”

The Government’s own figures demonstrate that BC Liberals created 39,959 funded spaces between 2005 and 2017, or an average of 3,330 net new spaces per year for 12 years. 

Data outlining the Child Care Operating Funding Program can be found at the following link:

https://mcfd.gov.bc.ca/reporting/services/early-years/case-data-and-trends