Data & research
The numbers behind BC child care
Our reports on BC child care, reference documents for the sector, and the data we hold.
Our reports
A pathway to universal child care in BC by 2028
Eight years after $10 a Day was announced as universal, it reaches about one child in ten. Budget 2026 paused new enrolment for a three-year stabilization period. We argue that pause is the moment to fix the funding model rather than wait it out.
Stabilize
From April 2027, pay operating and fee reduction funding on 75% of licensed capacity rather than enrolment — so programs survive the current enrolment trough with their educators still on staff, instead of laying them off.
Include
Three changes, none of them needing new legislation, so that enrolling a child with support needs brings the staffing to support them in the classroom: a standard of practice, a support supplement paid to the provider, and an accessibility grant.
Go universal
From April 2028, fund every licensed centre at its published regional benchmark, less a single province-wide parent co-pay. Costed in the report at roughly $1.2 to $1.9 billion a year, depending on the co-pay and occupancy.
The argument comes in two documents. Take the first if you want the case; take the second if you need the mechanism, the numbers or the citations.
Every child. Every centre.
The case. Why the three measures are needed and how they fit together, with the costing set out in an appendix. Child Care Professionals of BC, September 2026. 23 pages.
Policy proposals
The detail. Ten numbered proposals across the three parts — what to pay, to whom, on what basis and from when — with eligibility rules, estimated annual costs, and the sources behind every figure. Written for anyone assessing the plan rather than deciding whether to support it. September 2026. 19 pages.
Sector reference
Documents worth having
Standards and frameworks that shape practice in BC, collected here so they are easy to find. These are published by others; we note the source and the version on each.
B.C. Child Care Sector Occupational Competencies
The competencies behind ECE certification in this province — what an educator is expected to understand, value and be able to do. Knowledge specifications, a values and ethics section carrying the ECEBC Code of Ethics, and eight functional areas from maintaining a safe environment through to advocating for the child care system. Used for self-assessment, staff evaluation, professional development planning, and curriculum and practicum work.
Published by the Province of British Columbia, ECE Registry, updated 2026. 27 pages. Also on the Province’s ECE profession page, under Legal requirements.
Open data
Child care spaces against the children who need them
The dataset behind the report. Every BC school district, three points in time, and the arithmetic that turns funded spaces into coverage per 100 children.
What it covers
All 59 school districts plus a provincial total, for 2018, 2020 and 2026. Funded spaces by care type — under 3, 30 months to school age, preschool, school age, multi-age and family — set against child population by age band.
What it shows
Spaces per 100 children, calculated several ways so you can see how the answer moves depending on which care types you count. That sensitivity is the point: coverage figures for BC vary widely, and this shows why.
Where it comes from
CCOF district series for spaces and facilities, a 2020 freedom-of-information release for the licence breakdown, and BC Stats P.E.O.P.L.E. for child population — estimates for 2018 and 2020, projection for 2026.
Family and multi-age licences cover the whole 0–12 range, so the raw data cannot say how many of their spaces hold an infant and how many hold a four-year-old. The workbook's second sheet sets out the split we assume, the evidence for it, and — importantly — which direction it biases the result. The assumptions are the conservative ones for the argument the report makes. Change a number on that sheet and the affected columns recalculate, so you can test them yourself.
BC child care spaces and child populations
2018, 2020 and 2026. 180 rows across 60 districts, 30 columns, with a second sheet documenting the assumptions and sources. Excel format; opens in Numbers, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.
Using this in research or reporting? We’d like to hear about it — CCPofBC@gmail.com. More datasets will follow.
Collected elsewhere
Community child care plans
Municipalities across BC have assessed what child care their communities need and set out how to build it. Twenty-two of those documents, from seventeen communities, collected in one place.
Needs assessments, strategies and action plans from Bowen Island to Kamloops, Revelstoke to Surrey. They are published by the municipalities themselves and scattered across dozens of council websites; read together they show what local government already knows about the gap between spaces and need.
Researchers & media