Vaughn Palmer: Failure to keep $10-a-day child care promise comes back to bite David Eby

VICTORIA — Premier David Eby stumbled this week when he confirmed that his family has availed itself of two of B.C.’s heavily subsidized and very limited number of $10-a-day child care spaces.

When Eby was asked Monday when asked if he and his wife had “ever benefited from the $10-a-day child care program,” he replied, “Yes, my family, has yes.”

The NDP leader’s admission raised eyebrows, and rightly so.

Only one in 10 child care spaces gets funding sufficient to meet the $10-a-day standard. The NDP government this year imposed a three-year freeze on further spaces. Eby’s own minister of child care, Lisa Beare, admits that securing one of the 16,000 or so premium spaces is like “winning the lottery.”

Those statistics provoked an apt follow-up question to the B.C. NDP leader.

“How do you think people would feel knowing that you benefit from a program that very few people have access to and one that you won’t expand?” asked Global TV reporter Grace Ke.

“Well, I think it’s absolutely crucial that every British Columbian get access to affordable child care, and we are committed to expanding child care,” replied Eby, completely missing the point of the question.

The lawyer-premier would not explain why he and his doctor wife Cailey Lynch are benefiting from a program that ought to be reserved for more needy recipients than themselves.

Not until later in the day did the premier’s office put out a statement that began to address the question he had ducked earlier.

“A couple of years ago, the child care centre that one of our children was attending was designated as a $10-a-day site,” said Eby. “When that happened, we chose as a family to make a donation to that excellent facility. 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.

“We will be making a similar donation for our youngest child who attends the same facility.”

Eby did not say how much of a donation they made on behalf of the first child, and it was only when the story came out this week that they said they will now make a similar donation on behalf of a second child attending the same facility.

Still, they were taking up two spaces that would otherwise be available for a family in need of the full $10-a-day discount.

Not surprisingly, given the inadequacy of Monday’s answers, the NDP leader faced another round of questions Tuesday, which he mostly stonewalled.

Eby said the donation covered the gap between the $10-a-day and the higher rate before the threshold was established.

“We paid the difference between what it was before and what it was after,” he said.

B.C. has the highest child care rates in the country, according to the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Median rates in Vancouver range from $32 to $40 a day, the centre found.

When Global TV’s Jordan Armstrong pressed Eby for the dollar amount of his donation, the NDP leader said, “I’ve answered your question.” He had not.

He was also asked how he and his wife had handled the “donation” on their taxes. He declined to answer that as well.

On Tuesday afternoon, however, the NDP leader’s office put out a statement saying that the Eby-Lynch family had already donated $3,200 to the non-profit operator. They will donate a further $4,800 to the end of the current year, making $8,000 in all.

The New Democrats first promised $10-a-day child care in the 2017 election, and repeated it in 2020 and 2024.

It was supposed be universal within 10 years. To date, they have only funded it to the current embarrassment of one space in 10.

Then along comes the party leader, presiding over a campaign where class warfare is a constant theme, while he and his wife claim two child care spaces that would otherwise be available to more deserving recipients.

The Conservatives made political hay from the obvious contradiction.

“Nobody begrudges David Eby and his wife for their success. The Conservative Party wants more British Columbians to succeed,” said candidate Margareta Dovgal.

“What families will not accept is a premier who promised them $10-a-day child care, failed to deliver it, and then took one of the scarce spots for himself while a single mom working two jobs sits on a waitlist.”

The Greens also stand to benefit. Party leader Emily Lowan promised in the first week of the campaign to lift the freeze on $10-a-day and make it universal within five years.

It was the kind of over-reaching promise that the New Democrats used to make — did make — in the past. Also the sort of thing that might well appeal to disaffected NDP voters if Eby doesn’t find his footing before long.