Services people rely on like health care, child care and housing have supported British Columbians through the pandemic and recent climate-related disasters. Budget 2022 builds on these strengths and holds steady to what is right: putting people first.
BUILDING A STRONGER SOCIETY BY PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST
BUILDING A STRONGER SOCIETY BY PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST
Affordable, accessible, quality child care
Since launching the ChildCareBC plan in Budget 2018, we've been working to establish child care as a core service that's available to any family that wants it, when they need it, at a price they can afford.
More spaces:
The investments we've made since Budget 2018 have funded 26,000 new child care spaces across
the province. Now we're building
on those investments. Through an agreement with the federal government last fall, we are
creating 40,000 new licensed child care
spaces for children under the age of 6 in the next seven years. Budget 2022 further invests
to create more before and after school
spaces through the New Spaces Fund and increasing the number of school districts offering
the Seamless Day program from 24 to 44.
Lower fees:
Budget 2022 brings parents closer than ever to our goal of $10/day child care. We will be
reducing fees for full-day infant and toddler
care by 50% to an average of approximately $20/day by the end of 2022. Budget 2022 builds on
that investment by cutting average fees
for preschool and before and after school care to less than $20 a day for the 2023/24 school
year.
Quality Care:
The Province is also investing in the child care workforce, ensuring people are well-trained
and fairly compensated by training an additional
130 early childhood educators in each of the next three years and expanding ECE wage
enhancements to thousands more workers.
Strengthening health and mental health services
Improving the quality of physical and mental health care services and keeping British Columbians safe from the COVID-19 pandemic remains our highest priority. Budget 2022 invests to improve the physical and mental health care services people rely on, including by:
- Adding new Urgent and Primary Care Centres throughout the province.
- Supporting up to 15 First Nations Primary Health Care Centres.
- Reducing wait times for surgery and diagnostic imaging.
- Speeding up emergency response times by hiring more paramedics and dispatchers.
- Continuing to invest in the Pathway to Hope, with year two of Budget 2021's $500-million investment to improve mental health and addictions care.
The pandemic is still with us today and along with investments in health and mental health services, Budget 2022 includes funding for COVID-19 vaccinations, personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, enhanced measures to limit the risk of COVID-19 for vulnerable residents in long-term care and assisted living facilities, increased mental health supports for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and funding for the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
Preventing and responding to homelessness
Thousands of people will benefit from a new, cross-government approach to both prevent homelessness and respond quickly to assist people experiencing homelessness to become stably housed. We're expanding services and improving the ways we prevent and address homelessness by shifting from a reactive to proactive approach:
- Addressing the increased risk of homelessness faced by former youth in care by improving how we support the thousands of young adults aging out of government care, up to age 27.
- Housing more than 3,000 people through new rent supplements with integrated supports.
- Expanding the new first-of-its-kind Complex Care housing model to at least 20 more sites across B.C. to help up to 500 people with severe mental health, substance use issues, or traumatic and acquired brain injuries who are homeless or unstably housed.
- Supporting the up to 3,000 people who were temporarily housed in leased or purchased hotel and other spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic through a transition to permanent housing.
Beginning the transition to improved services for families of children with support needs
Budget 2022 starts the transition to more accessible and inclusive services for children and youth with support needs by establishing family connections centres throughout the province. Two early implementation areas — in the Northwest and Central Okanagan — will support local families based on their needs, regardless of whether their child has a diagnosis. Findings from these pilots will inform the development and implementation of the province-wide system, to be in place in 2025.
Supporting sexual assault survivors
Budget 2022 invests to support survivors of sexual assault by providing core funding to more than 50 sexual assault service centres, undoing cuts that were made to these services in 2002. These centres will receive dedicated, ongoing funding to provide critical crisis response, counselling, preventative medication, forensic exams, mechanisms to report to the police, and child protection services.