Gender and Work,  Public Sector Work,  Research

The Economic Benefits of Expanded Child Care in British Columbia

June 24, 2025 /

The Centre for Future Work has released a new report documenting the widespread economic benefits resulting from the ongoing expansion of early learning and child care services (ELCC) in British Columbia, as part of the roll-out of the new Canada-wide $10-per-day child care system.

The report builds on previous research published by the Centre about the economic benefits already visible from the new national system: including jobs and GDP generated directly within the ELCC sector, indirect jobs created in supply and consumer industries, and benefits resulting from enhanced female labour force participation and full-time employment.

This new report reviews provincial-level data in B.C. for the same indicators. Economic data confirms that ELCC availability has been expanding rapidly in B.C., generating multiple economic and fiscal benefits:

  • Over 8,000 new jobs have been created in ELCC provision in B.C. since 2019. The pace of ELCC job-creation has been stronger in B.C. than in Canada as a whole: with employment up 62% for B.C., twice as fast as the 31% growth in national ELCC employment.
  • Average weekly earnings for ELCC workers have improved in B.C. thanks to stronger funding and the province’s Wage Enhancement policy. Nominal weekly earnings in B.C.’s ELCC sector grew 40% between 2019 and 2024, slightly faster than the average for Canada (36%).
  • Average hours of work have also increased in the ELCC sector—another indicator of improving job quality. The combination of higher hourly wages with longer hours of work (in part reflecting less reliance on part-time arrangements) produces a two-fold improvement in earnings.
  • Supported by improved access to child care, core-age (25-54) female labour force participation increased by over one full percentage point between 2019 and 2025 (broadly matching the similar experience in Canada as a whole).
  • The incidence of part-time employment among core-age female workers has also trended downward as the ELCC system has been expanded. The part-time employment rate among women in B.C. declined by 1.5 percentage points between 2019 and 2025, slightly more than the average for Canada.
  • The combination of increased labour force participation and increased full-time employment for core age women has increased B.C.’s provincial labour supply by some 33,000 full-time-equivalent workers over the five-year period ending in 2024.
  • Expanded employment and output in the ELCC sector, indirect and induced activity in both ‘upstream’ supply industries and ‘downstream’ consumer industries, and the incremental output produced via greater female labour supply, have together provided a strong boost to provincial GDP. The report estimates that provincial GDP in 2024 was $5.8 billion higher in 2024 (measured in real 2024 dollar terms) than would have been the case without the expansion of ELCC services after 2019, reinforced by the national $10-per-day program.
  • The provincial government itself harvests significant fiscal benefits thanks to the boost in GDP, employment, and incomes resulting from expanded ELCC services. Since the provincial government receives 17.5% of provincial GDP in the form of various own-source[1] revenue streams (such as provincial income taxes, the PST, and other sources), the improvement in GDP resulting from expanded ELCC translates into approximately $1 billion in extra provincial revenue per year.

In sum, the new report confirms that expanded ELCC has been an economic boon for B.C., at a fragile time in the province’s economic history. Accelerating and strengthening the rollout of $10-per-day spaces in the province, and improving the quality of care (including by reducing the province’s current heavy reliance on for-profit providers), will be important in ensuring these economic benefits continue to be reaped in the years to come.

Please see the full report, The Economic Benefits of Expanded Child Care Services in British Columbia, by Jim Stanford. This report was commissioned by the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C.

[1] Excluding federal transfer payments.

Jim Stanford is Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work, based in Vancouver, Canada. Jim is one of Canada’s best-known economic commentators. He served for over 20 years as Economist and Director of Policy with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector trade union.