British Columbia’s acting auditor general says seven years after promising to add capacity in regional health authorities to license, monitor, and investigate child-care facilities, the province doesn’t know if it has done those things.
Sheila Dodds’ report says the Ministry of Education and Child Care has not worked effectively with the Ministry of Health and regional health authorities to implement promises under the 2018 ChildCareBC plan.
The report, which covers from April 2022 to July 2024, says the ministry did not co-ordinate to document expectations for implementing the commitment, monitoring the implementation, or reporting progress.
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As part of the report, auditors looked at Vancouver Coastal Health and found the authority did not properly assess its capacity to license new spaces, investigate complaints and monitor compliance for child care facilities.
The report makes five recommendations for the ministry around better documentation, planning and monitoring, and five other recommendations for the health authority on collecting data.
Both the health authority and the ministry say they agree with the recommendations, with the province saying it has established a cross-ministry committee to discuss “shared responsibilities” relating to child care, and the health authority promising to establish key performance indicators.
The report says the B.C. and federal governments have funded 39,000 new child care spaces since 2018 and 31,000 more are expected by 2028.
