Seven years after promising to add capacity in regional health authorities to license, monitor, and investigate childcare facilities, the British Columbia government doesn't know if it has done those things, the province's acting auditor general says.
Sheila Dodds' report, released Thursday, 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 10-year 2018 ChildCare小蓝视频 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.
"The ministry did not have a documented set of expectations. It had not defined roles and responsibilities. It did not establish timelines and targets. It wasn't clear how funding to implement the capacity commitment would be secured or how funding needs would be identified," Dodds told reporters Thursday.
"We found that the Ministry of Education and Child Care did not know whether health authorities had increased their capacity to license, monitor and investigate childcare facilities in 小蓝视频"
Dodds said licensing capacity is particularly important because the 小蓝视频 and federal governments have funded 39,000 new childcare spaces since 2018 and 31,000 more are expected by 2028.
In 小蓝视频, the Ministry of Child Care is responsible for planning and funding, while licensing of childcare facilities falls to the Ministry of Health and the province's five regional health authorities.
As part of the report, auditors also 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 childcare facilities.
Dodds said Vancouver Coastal Health last received funding for new childcare licensing staff in 2019, but since then the number of childcare facilities has increased by 19 per cent.
Dodds said the health authority is meeting the standard it sets for itself for doing regular inspections, but didn't have similar indicators or timelines for its licensing and investigation activities.
"It's important for the ministries and the health authorities to understand whether they have the capacity needed to meet their own expectations to deliver that oversight of the quality of care and the safety of children," she said.
The report makes five recommendations for the ministry around better documentation, planning and monitoring, and five other recommendations for the health authority mostly related to collecting data.
A response from both the health authority and the ministry included in the report says they agree with the recommendations.
The province says it has established a cross-ministry committee to discuss "shared responsibilities" relating to childcare, and the health authority is promising to establish additional key performance indicators.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2025.
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
