The NOW asked each Burnaby candidate to answer 10 questions ahead of the provincial election on Oct. 19.
We will be publishing candidate answers by question daily.
Answers by candidates who participated are listed in alphabetical order by surname.
Question: Soon-to-be former Burnaby MLA Katrina Chen was integral to getting $10-a-day child care in B.C., helping the province become the first to sign onto the federal government’s child-care plan as the Minister of State for Child Care. Local families are still struggling to find daycare, especially if they’re on a budget. If elected, how will you shorten daycare waitlists and establish more cost-friendly services for Burnaby/New Westminster families seeking daycare?
Reah Arora - BC NDP (Burnaby East)
The investments in childcare under former MLA Katrina Chen have changed lives. Affordable childcare has allowed parents to return to work while keeping more money in their pockets for daily essentials. Under Katrina Chen’s leadership, childcare costs have been cut in half, and efforts are underway to create thousands more spaces to ensure families can find the care they need. Increasing capacity is crucial to reducing waitlists and expanding cost-friendly options.
Since 2018, over 148,000 families have benefited from reduced childcare fees, saving parents more than $2.2 billion. Waitlist fees for parents have been eliminated, and childcare spaces are being created at the fastest pace in BC's history, including private, non-profit, and family care centers. Additionally, childcare spaces are being built on school grounds to provide convenience for families.
We’ve boosted wages for early childhood educators and are supporting child care providers with operating expenses to build a strong, sustainable childcare system that’s there for families now and in the future. These actions have resulted in more childcare spaces, lower fees, and more savings for parents.
I remain committed to reducing costs and increasing childcare availability until the job is complete. Thousands of families are already paying $10 per day or less, and more $10 per day spaces will continue to open.
Simon Chandler - Conservative Party of BC (Burnaby East)
The Conservative Party of BC is committed to supporting parents in a variety of ways. The Eby-Trudeau $10-a-day childcare plan shuts out independent providers who service the majority of BC families. This has left thousands of parents unable to access affordable care with nearly 60% of BC parents still struggling to find care. A BC Conservative government would establish real $10-a-day childcare by ending the funding bias against independent providers. The Conservative plan supports both independent and government-run providers. We will reduce the regulatory barriers to open high-quality childcare spaces in homes, commercial facilities, and public buildings. We will also expand the BC Family Benefit and Affordable Childcare Benefit to provide tax credits to lower- and middle-income households. 24-hour childcare spaces will also be opened for shift workers and first responders. Additionally, a BC Conservative government will support schools that offer childcare programs, simplify credential conversion for professionals like teachers and social workers to transition into childcare, and enable educators to work as Early Childhood Educator assistants during the summer months.
Meiling Chia - Unaffiliated (Burnaby South-Metrotown)
The only way to shorten waitlists is to open more daycare centres. We should be incentivizing British Columbian daycare businesses so more families are able to find a safe and affordable childcare option.
Paul Choi - BC NDP (Burnaby South-Metrotown)
If elected, I will continue building on the work Katrina Chen started to improve access to affordable childcare. The BC NDP has already cut childcare costs in half, saving families up to $900 per child per month. But I know many families in Burnaby and New Westminster are still struggling to find daycare spots. That’s why we are committed to creating even more childcare spaces by investing in new childcare centres and working to ensure childcare providers have the support they need to operate sustainably.
We’re also partnering with the federal government to expand $10-a-day childcare across the province. This program is already making a huge difference for families, and by continuing to expand it, we can help even more parents access affordable, quality childcare.
To further shorten waitlists, we’re investing in training more Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) and improving their pay and working conditions. By ensuring ECEs are well-supported, we can retain more workers and expand the capacity of existing daycare centres.
My goal is to ensure that every family can access affordable childcare without being on long waitlists.
Raj Chouhan - BC NDP (Burnaby-New Westminster)
Affordable, high-quality, licensed child care is a game changer for families. It supports the development of children and the working lives of parents. Today more than 148,000 families are benefiting from reduced child care fees, saving parents over $2.2 billion since 2018. We know there is more to do to address affordability and spaces which is why we are making significant investments in building child care on school grounds. Moving towards a child care system that is fully integrated with our public education system will ensure there is always enough space for children and that during the weekday parents are free to focus on the jobs that provide for their families. John Rustad is planning deep cuts that will mean less child care spaces and higher costs for families. No young family can afford his plan of going backwards.
Anne Kang - BC NDP (Burnaby Centre)
As a mother of two children, I understand the challenges of families who struggle between busy family schedules, working, and other commitments. Having safe, affordable, and accessible childcare is critical to providing young families with the proper support to help them succeed. The BC NDP is committed to shortening daycare waitlists and creating more cost-friendly services for Burnaby residents seeking affordable daycare. We know that $10-a-day daycare is linked to improved health, education, employment, and economic benefits for families. That’s why the BC NDP government was the first in the country to sign onto the federal government’s plan. It has been successful for the approximately 15,000 families who have benefitted from it, and our commitment is to ensure the program expands to all families across B.C. Further expansion of this program relies on further negotiation with the federal government, and I will be a fierce advocate for B.C.’s fair share of federal funds for it. The BC NDP recognizes the importance of reducing fees for childcare services, and on our own, through a separate provincial program, we reduced childcare fees for an additional 5,000 facilities. The BC NDP government also provided extra support for low- and middle-income families through the Affordable Child Care Benefit, which provides up to $1,250 per month per child. Affordable childcare is not only good for families, but also good for the economy – we’ve seen this – and it’s implementation across all of Burnaby is a priority for me.
Martin Kendell - Independent (Burnaby North)
We need to continue to encourage all new property development around the province to provide affordable space in their complexes to house childcare facilities that are close to the places that people live.
We must also ensure that sufficient funding is provided to train people to fill the thousands of Early Childcare Educator positions that will be required to provide safe and reliable childcare to working parents. One area of opportunity is to introduce introductory ECE courses to high school students so they can get a jump on post secondary training and get into the workforce sooner.
The province should offer tax credits that allow one parent the opportunity to scale back to part time work in order to care for their child or children until they enter elementary school. In the long run, these tax credits can save money over having to heavily subsidize spaces in these $10-a- day childcare facilities and allow parents the opportunity to bond with their offspring for longer than the 12 to 18 months they receive through parental leave.
Han Lee - Conservative Party of BC (Burnaby South-Metrotown)
While $10 a day childcare is a great initiative, it’s not enough if families still can’t access spots. The Conservative Party of BC will work to increase the number of childcare spaces by incentivizing private and non profit daycare providers to expand their services. Additionally, we will streamline the process for opening new daycare centers, ensuring they can be established quickly in high need areas like Burnaby. Our plan includes expanding tax credits for families and childcare providers to ensure daycare remains affordable and accessible.
Carrie McLaren - BC Green Party (Burnaby South-Metrotown)
It’s a lack of staff and locations… so we would create a universal childhood education funding model to reduce admin burdens for providers, while addressing space creation, licensing, wage grids and job security and pensions for ECE workers.
Janet Routledge - BC NDP (Burnaby North)
It’s stressful to look for daycare, especially on a tight budget. We’ve opened up 850 licensed childcare centres and 37 000 new childcare spaces, and we’ve cut the average childcare cost in half, but there’s still a lot of work to do. We have to keep building childcare spaces, and we have to keep driving costs down. Past governments ignored this problem, which led to a historic deficit of childcare spaces in our province. We can’t afford to go back.
Tara Shustarian - BC Green Party (Burnaby East)
If you look at the actual issues, day cares are businesses. Their operators are not all big businesses, many are family run businesses where their passion for providing day cares is put ahead of the profits. I’ve heard of too many dreams shattered and retirement funds drained from paying rent to a landlord for months and months without ever getting open. The government regulations with Coastal and Fraser Health, and local building departments take far too long to navigate, are often ridiculously stringent, and remain the roadblock stopping more day cares being opened than anything else. The province should work with its partners to encourage streamlining all applications for proposed and new daycare facilities. As well, encourage all new developments in Burnaby to provide the exterior playground areas that might be needed in the future for daycare, even if there is not one immediately ready to open on that property. Safe exterior play area remains the number one roadblock to day cares being open. Also recently i spoke to a mother up in SFU and she said sometimes we must think outside the box. The firefighter’s office at UniverCity is vacant as a new fire hall has been constructed. That area could easily be refurbished and leased as a daycare facility. Also with $250 million in funding as proposed by the Greens could help to alleviate day care space costs. Eventually, encourage all operators to have a $10day daycare plan with adequate funding from the province.
