- Research overwhelmingly confirms the importance of early childhood experience in healthy child development.
- Children's health and well being depend on the health and well being of their parents.
- Healthy pregnancy leads to healthy babies, and health promotion programs to support pregnant and parenting mothers and fathers are key to healthy beginnings.
- Wait lists to assess and provide services for children with special needs are often long.
- The cost of family child care (licensed) in the city of Vancouver for children aged 3 -5 is on average $868 per month, with the maximum subsidy that one can receive being $550. (Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre)
- There are only enough regulated child care spaces for 15% of children under 12 in BC, leaving too many parents unable to work and achieve their career goals, and too many children in situations where the quality of their early care and learning is unknown. Wait times for licensed child care are years long. (Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC)
- After housing, child care is the second highest cost facing BC families. (Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC)
- The largest labour supply increase in recent decades has occurred among female lone-parent families and married women with young children. 76% of women with children aged three to five work for pay, as do 64% of women with children under age three. (Human Early Learning Partnership)
- Parents across BC continue to pay the bulk of the costs related to their child’s care, while public spending on child care and pre-school is the lowest in Canada. (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)
