B.C. child-care spaces could increase by 13,000 over 8 years

Capital funding for child-care spaces in B.C. has been awarded to 32 providers across the province as part of a $7- million initiative first announced in May.

Phase one will see 1,006 spaces open as the result of new facilities being built by the recipients, many of them with a focus on serving aboriginal families.

Of these spaces, 447 will be on school grounds and 559 elsewhere.

The move is part of a bigger plan that will see as many as 13,000 new child-care spaces across the province over the next eight years.

"We have, across this year and next in the budget, $32 million allocated for the creation of 2,000 spaces over the next two years," Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux said Monday.

"The 13,000 total over the next eight years will depend on future budgets."