B.C. NDP Leader David Eby is defending his family’s enrolment in the provincial $10-a-day child-care program.<\/p>\n
Eby is under attack from Conservatives who say his “wealthy family” should not benefit from the program that they say is inaccessible to many low-income families.<\/p>\n
In a post on X Monday, Eby said one of his children was already attending a child-care centre when it was designated as a $10-a-day site.<\/p>\n
“When that occurred, we chose as a family to make a donation to that excellent facility,” Eby said.<\/p>\n
“We felt that we did not need that discount and we wanted to make sure that the child-care centre could provide other supports for families in the community.”<\/p>\n
Eby said his family will make a similar donation to the child-care centre for their youngest child who attends the same facility.<\/p>\n
At a news conference on Tuesday, Eby would not specify the donation amount or if it was used as a tax write off.<\/p>\n
“We certainly didn’t need that discount,” Eby said.<\/p>\n
“We paid the difference between what it was before and what it was after the $10-a-day daycare,” he added.<\/p>\n
Now, Eby is taking heat from the B.C. Conservatives during the snap provincial election campaign.<\/p>\n
“It’s shocking to learn that while hundreds of thousands of British Columbians are struggling with the most expensive child care in the country, David Eby’s family landed a plum $10-a-day child care spot,” said Margareta Dovgal, the B.C. Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Yaletown, in a news release Monday.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives called attention to Eby’s compensation from 2025 to 2026 as premier, which totalled more than $226,000, and criticized his “wealthy family” for benefiting from the subsidized child-care program.<\/p>\n
After Eby’s Tuesday news conference, Dovgal said Eby was dodging the tough questions.<\/p>\n
“David Eby should look a working single mother paying thousands in childcare costs in the eye explaining why his wealthy, powerful family deserves $10\/day childcare first,” Dovgal said in a second news release.<\/p>\n
“David Eby is trying to defend the indefensible, as British Columbians are seeing Eby for the opportunistic hypocrite he is.”<\/p>\n
The Conservatives are demanding Eby answer a number of questions, including around the value and proof of his first donation, whether it was a tax write-off, and more information on the value of the second planned donation.<\/p>\n
What is the $10-a-day child-care program?<\/p>\n
The $10-a-day program is operated by independent businesses who have chosen to participate; access to one of the facilities is based on each location’s licensed capacity and waitlist, according to the provincial government<\/a>.<\/p>\n