New study shows few low-income families benefiting from $10 daycare in B.C.

Lengthy waitlists and high costs make daycare unattainable for many British Columbian families.

The province's 13,000 $10-per-day child-care spaces have changed that for many—but a new study from University of British Columbia researchers suggests very few low-income families have been able to access the program.

"Our initial study intended to only interview low-income women who were single moms accessing those $10-per-day spots," said Dr. Lea Caragata, director of the school of social work at UBC and co-author of the study. "After six months of intensive recruitment, we could only find 13 across the province."

There are no maximum income thresholds for families to be eligible for the program, and Carataga believes there should be, and that the program needs to be drastically expanded up to 50,000 seats.

"Lots of the women talked about the fact they were better parents because they didn't have the stress of juggling piece-meal daycare here or piece-meal daycare there," she said. "Or being broke all the time. They felt like they could really commit to being a good parent."

Minister of State for Child Care Grace Lore was not available for an interview but sent a statement highlighting other subsidies and tax benefits available to families with children in daycare.

She also says the province will be adding an additional 2,400 $10-per-day spaces in 2024.

"We are continuing to take action to build access to affordable, quality, inclusive child care as a core service that families can depend on," Lore said in the statement.

Kiana Dashtbazi, a single mother who struggled financially while attending the British Columbia Institute of Technology with two kids in daycare, wishes the program had been available when she needed it.

She paid thousands of dollars per year for daycare on top of tuition and basic living expenses.

"Even part of my bursary money that I received from YWCA, I had to pay for the daycare because there was no other way that I could go to school," Dashtbazi said. "Ten dollar daycare would be life-changing for low-income families and especially single moms."

While her kids are now older and no longer go to daycare, she hopes the province can reserve the new $10-per-day spots for low-income families.

"Having a threshold for income is very useful," she said. "All the low-income people can have access to the daycare."