Frustrated B.C. daycare operators say late payments from the provincial government have them using personal lines of credit just to pay their staff on time.
Amanda Worms runs a pair of Okanagan daycares called Little Owl Academy, with a total of 250 spaces.
In April, the province launched its Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative meant to help families cover the cost of daycare. The subsidy varies from $60 to $350 per month.
For Little Owl, that adds up to about $22,000, but Worms says the province has been late in paying each of the last three months.
"I actually had to transfer my entire personal line of credit to make payroll yesterday and try to mitigate the lease cheques that I can't stop," Worms told CTV News Wednesday.
She said she's heard similar stories from several other daycare operators. More than 2,600 facilities are part of the program.
The Ministry of Children and Families blamed the number of statutory holidays in December for January's late payments.
"We processed around 2,200 payments by December 24 and the majority of these providers should have received payment by Jan. 1," a ministry spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
"All providers who submitted their reports on or before December 20 should receive payment by January 3, 2019."
The ministry said it understands the impact of delayed payments and that it will be looking at improvements to the system to ensure funds are available in similar circumstances. The spokesperson did not explain what may have caused previous payment delays.
With files from CTV Vancouver's David Molko and Ben Miljure
