With fees as high as $1,200 per month on average, childcare costs in Richmond are among the highest in B.C.
This is most likely due to the large number of for-profit childcare centres in the city, according to a recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Furthermore, the province’s fee-reduction policies might be benefiting these private centres but not reducing fees for parents in Richmond.
The study, the sixth annual report on childcare fees issued by the think tank, uses data collected from licensed full-day childcare centres, as well as home or family child care providers in 37 cities across the country.
Five B.C. cities were included in the survey: Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Kelowna. Of those cities, Richmond had the highest median monthly costs for childcare in the province. For infants and toddlers, the monthly median fee was $1,200, and for preschool-aged children, $955.
“What we’ve seen over the years with the surveys – B.C. cities in general have been among the most expensive for childcare in the country,” said Alex Hemingway, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which conducts the annual nation-wide survey of childcare fees.
“We’re starting to see that shift as a result of government policies that have been brought in, (and) B.C. cities in general are moving towards the middle of the pack, but Richmond remains at the higher end,” said Hemingway, who is not one of the authors of the study.
What stands out in Richmond, said Hemingway, is that the city has a higher share of for-profit childcare centres compared to other cities.
“What we see in the report, both in Richmond and across the country, is that these for-profit centres charge substantially higher fees than the not-for-profit centres,” said Hemingway.
According to the survey, for-profit childcare centres in Richmond are 52 per cent more expensive than not-for-profit centres.
In 2018, B.C. launched a fee-reduction initiative, intended to cut fees by up to $350 per month at approved licensed facilities.
However, Richmond saw almost no change in fees between 2017 and 2019, despite the new provincial initiative.
The provincial government has mechanisms in place, along with their fee reduction initiatives, to allow centres to apply to increase their fees, for example, to help cover operational costs, said Hemingway.
According to the report, the for-profit centres received the benefit of the fee reduction through higher fees, instead of parents receiving the benefit.
In comparison, Vancouver saw a $235 reduction in fees for infants and toddlers, according to the report, which notes that 80 per cent of that city’s childcare spaces are not-for-profit.
According to city spokesperson Clay Adams, the City of Richmond surveyed local childcare operators in 2016, and found that 60.5 per cent of respondents self-identified as privately-owned, 25.9 per cent as non-profit and 13.6 per cent as “unknown or other.”
However, said Adams, because only 30 per cent of childcare operators in Richmond at the time responded to the survey, it’s not reflective of the entire community.
Meanwhile, the think-tank report found that only 31 per cent of Richmond’s childcare spaces are not-for-profit.
A better model, said Hemingway, would be that centres could apply for additional operational funding from the government that they would get in the form of additional funding, rather than being allowed to charge higher fees.
B.C. could also look towards provinces like Quebec and Manitoba, said Hemingway, which set childcare fees as a matter of public policy.
“We see this work in other jurisdictions…the formula for success is to set fees as a matter of public policy, and make sure providers can cover their costs by providing public operational funding for spaces,” he said.
“Over time, we’d like to see more funding go towards that operational funding, tied to fee reductions in B.C., rather than the parallel program we have in terms of the affordable childcare benefit, which is cash benefit.”
