Richmond is still one of two Canadian cities with the most expensive child care in the country.
In 2021, the federal government promised to cut child care fees in half by 2022 and bring average fees down to $10 a day by 2026.
However, a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) report found Richmond has the highest infant and toddler full-time child care costs with median fees of $900 and $905 a month, respectively.
Meanwhile, the city is the second most expensive for preschoolers at $800, while Calgary is most expensive at $810 and Toronto’s fees are at $725.
Despite a 44-per-cent increase in child care spaces, which added 2,535 new spaces in Richmond since 2017, there is still a high demand for child care as there’s only enough space for 35.6 per cent of the city’s children.
The report’s authors David Macdonald, senior economist at CCPA, and Martha Friendly, with the childcare resource research unit, found parents in cities like Toronto and Richmond have to pay much more than the median fee reported.
The assessment of 32 Canadian cities shows good progress so far on fee reduction, however “there is still more work that needs to be done” to make child care accessible for everyone, according to Macdonald and Friendly.
Seven provinces and territories, aside from Alberta, B.C. and Prince Edward Island, have already reduced fees with five charging $10 or less per day.
Macdonald and Friendly said in their report that setting fees would make costs more predictable for parents.
“The gap between for-profit and not-for-profit fees has widened, especially in high-fee cities with many for-profit centres such as Surrey, Burnaby and Richmond, B.C. as well as Richmond Hill and Markham, Ont.,” read the report.
Finding available child care spaces is still a challenge given half of the cities cannot predict when space will become free.
“If achieving the vision of an affordable, high-quality child care system for all is our goal, then all provinces/territories must move to set fees, as seven already have,” said Friendly.
She added expansion strategies on public and non-profit child care as well as changing traditional funding models to a public model would help support affordable child care.
-With files from Vikki Hui
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