BC United rolls out child-care plan promising to 'fix' NDP's $10-a-day promise

Targeting young families and an unfulfilled NDP promise, Kevin Falcon — and his BC United party — are pledging $10-a-day child care.

“We are going to fix this problem immediately,” Falcon said at a press conference Thursday held at a daycare in Esquimalt.

The plan for middle and lower income families is income-tested and gives direct subsidies to families, ensuring they pay no more than $200 a month for child care.

It also touts tax credits for parents or grandparents who provide childcare from home.

“This is how were going to get affordable daycare, not just something that's been talked about for the past eight years by the NDP,” Falcon said.

In the past two elections, the NDP have promised $10-a-day daycare across the province. While significant investments have been made in making daycare more affordable, there are still thousands of families in B.C. on waitlists, looking for a spot.

“The criticism is, its not happening fast enough,” said Sharon Gregson, with the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC.

BC United’s pitch — like the NDP’s — involves promises for higher wages through a wage grid to attract more early childhood educators, and using schools and hospitals for daycare.

But the approach is flawed Gregson said.

“The cash transfers to parents don’t buy child care if it doesn’t exist, and we’ve seen the market based approach is not the solution,” she said Thursday, noting that there was no threshold spelled out for which families don’t qualify.

Thursday’s announcement came days after two MLA’s defected from BC United to the BC Conservatives.

Falcon wouldn't guaranteed there wouldn’t be more defections, but insisted he's not worried.

“Our caucus is solid — and our candidates are solid — and we're focused on the future,” he said.

Hamish Telford is a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley. He says for the party's future, it needs a big announcement to change the narrative of freefalling polls.

“Put that big idea that gets everyone talking about his policy,” Telford said.

Asked whether the child-care plan was his party’s big announcement for the campaign, Falcon demurred.

“Wait until I start talking about health care and some of the other things,” he said.