To Premier Eby and Minister Dean,

It’s time to ban application fees for childcare waitlists. 

Finding accessible and affordable childcare in your community is already hard enough, but daycares are often charging upwards of $200 to simply accept an application for a waitlist spot that may never materialize. There is zero transparency into how long the wait list are nor any guarantee of a spot. 

Parents are often forced to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on non-refundable deposits just to have a chance to put their kids into a nearby childcare facility. Families are not offered a refund to be removed from a waitlist upon finding alternate care.

Childcare providers are preying on the worries that parents with young children have to find an appropriate daycare option as they plan their return to work. Parents should be able to enjoy their parental leaves with their young children without having this stress and financial burden over their heads. 

Ontario has already banned these fees in 2016 and it’s high time British Columbia does the same. 

https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/41284/ontario-ending-fees-for-child-care-wait-lists