How we’re doubling down on a public childcare option

If you are active in your local, a dedicated reader of Public Employee, or— as is often the case —both, then you know how important the issue of universal and accessible public childcare is to CUPE BC. Over the past five years, we have dedicated significant resources to making childcare available to everyone.

Now, as our campaign picks up steam, we are doubling down on our efforts to make the seamless day model— in which before- and after-school care is delivered directly by public workers in school districts— a reality across B.C.

views. The action site drew more than 4,000 interactions, with members and the public sending e-mails to local and provincial leaders. CUPE BC’s vision of public childcare has been endorsed by the Coalition of Childcare Advocates of BC, the Hospital Employees’ Union, the BC Federation of Students, the Single Mothers’ Alliance of BC, and the BC Teachers’ Federation, among others.

“A public solution is within our reach, and with that a better quality of life for parents, their children, and those workers looking after our future.”

The current model is mostly market-based: it relies on for-profit or not-for-profit providers to provide childcare services. This system is not working for parents, who must compete over a shortage of spaces. It is not working for providers, who must compete with one another for staff. And it does not work for the workers— mostly women, mostly racialized— whose work is precarious and who receive poverty wages, few benefits, and no pension. A public solution is within our reach, and with that a better quality of life for parents, their children, and those workers looking after our future.

Filling the void

Despite substantial investments by the BCNDP government, and its commitment to a universal system of affordable childcare with a strong emphasis on integrating early care and learning, B.C. still lacks a model of public childcare that supports quality, reliable care for kids while providing good jobs, fair wages and a pension for workers. Throwing more money and subsidies into the market system will never solve the problem we are facing. The system itself must evolve to meet the needs of parents, children and staff. And we know the public appetite for such a model is strong. During phase one of our campaign, advertising produced more than 5.6 million digital impressions and more than 85,000 website

Public childcare programs and pilots now exist in half of B.C.’s school districts, a number that keeps growing as advocacy continues at the provincial and local level to turn pilot sites into ongoing programs. But progress has been slow, and the BCNDP government has yet to make a substantial, systemic investment in a public option. Thankfully, Premier David Eby referenced our childcare proposal in his address at Convention 2023. This was encouraging, since delegates passed a resolution calling for a continuation of the Division’s work to create a seamless system of childcare brought into the public school system and delivered by CUPE members.

A coalition of caring

The next phase of our campaign will shift from public awareness building to organizing, coalition building, and direct outreach to build support for CUPE BC’s vision through grassroots organizing and engagement. The aim is to get decision-makers and the general public — especially parents —  to embrace an integrated model in which childcare work in school districts would be delivered by existing CUPE K-12 workers, in particular Education Assistants, who need additional hours of work to create sustainable, family-supporting jobs. In the long term, we’re aiming for full implementation of the $10-a-day childcare plan and expansion of the current K-12 system to an Early Care/Learning (E-12) system, with school districts responsible for the delivery of all early care and learning from zero to age 12.

The fact that B.C. can quickly create thousands of new, highquality childcare spaces in the public school system— and without having to hire any new staff or build a single new space— should be a no-brainer for the decision-makers.