BCBusiness

so left B.C. behind for greener pastures have the right idea? "Next to housing, child care is the second-biggest crisis," says Sharon Gregson, spokesperson for the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC (CCCABC). "One facet is the lack of access to licensed care, and another is the price." In Metro Vancouver there are enough licensed child-care spaces for only 35 percent of children under „ve, leav- ing most parents to rope in relatives, hire nannies, use unlicensed home daycares or do the math and decide to stay at home. "Child care has been left to the market to „gure out instead of being treated like a vital public service like elementary school or health care," Gregson says. "[It] is a textbook example of market failure." The child-care crisis appears to be hurting the city and its businesses, too, as more families bail on Vancouver's steep living costs to settle else- where and employers struggle to attract and retain quali„ed and experienced staŒ. As a manager of research and analysis at the Vancouver Economic Commission, James Raymond has been hearing a lot about the pain points for companies, especially crucial services such as child care. "It's mentioned by the businesses we work with day- to-day as becoming an issue," Raymond says. Vancouver's tech industry in particular has a talent short- age, and parents of young chil- dren who can't „nd suitable child care are a valuable miss- ing piece, he adds. "Child-care investment is a really critical investment for all economies to make," Raymond contends. "So I'm glad it's being „nally addressed now."" Earlier this year the provincial government released its Universal Child Care policy, announcing the „rst steps toward building a comprehensive plan for B.C. The province has budgeted $1 billion over the next three years to create an additional 22,000 new licensed spaces and subsidize licensed providers. It's the largest such investment in nearly two decades. Studies in Quebec, Europe and the U.S. show that univer- sal child care doesn't just boost female participation in the labour force. It also narrows the gender pay gap, increases social mobility, reduces poverty and, if the care is high quality, provides lasting ben- e„ts for young brains. "In B.C. it's huge," says Iglika Ivanova, a Vancouver- based senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank. "We are building the „rst new social program in over a generation." Fee subsidies have already begun to roll out, but with the shortage of licensed child-care spots across the province at 122,000, according to the CCCABC, for thousands of families the change can't come quick enough. Plus, advocates of the $10aDay Child Care Plan point out that for a quality universal program, the gov- ernment must hike spending to $1.5 billion a year. Ivanova and some other economists believe it would recoup most of those costs from parents working more. For the Ottahals, the new provincial subsidies made all the diŒerence. The resulting $700 reduction in monthly expenses helped them aŒord a three-bedroom in Pitt Mead- ows, where they also found nearby licensed child care. Around the time that her family was navigating these decisions, TiŒany Ottahal „nally heard from one of the daycares back in Burnaby whose waitlist she joined when she was pregnant with her „rst child. The message informed her that he was 20th in line. "It's three and a half years later, and there's still not a space," she says." It's comical now." As harvest season hits its stride, we look at how B.C. food pro– ducers are coping with real estate pressure by Melissa Edwards Betting the farm? 16 BCBusiness SEptEmBER 2018 ( the informer ) G O F I G U R E READ THIS Less than 10 years after SfU was built, then–university president pauline Jewett was lamenting its isolation on the top of Burnaby mountain. She proposed building a village. It now exists. UniverCity is a bustling, sustainable community with shops, services and some 5,000 residents. In Building Community: Defining, Designing, Developing UniverCity, Gordon Harris, president and CEO of SfU Community trust, with Richard Littlemore, who often writes for BCBusiness, explain what it takes to create a compact and walkable neighbourhood in a forested suburban setting that people will happily inhabit. Ecotone 144 pages, paperback, $34.95 4.6 million Hectares in B.C.'s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), which makes up about 5% of the province's land base 73 out of 122 minimum number of $2-million-plus Vancouver-area agricultural property sales from August 2015 to July 2016 that involved investors and speculators rather than farmers, according to a Globe and Mail investigation BCBUSINESS.CA 50% Share of ALR used for farming 67% Fraser Valley 49% Metro Vancouver 46% North Okanagan 30% Central Kootenay 24% Comox Valley

• BCB_201809_01-Sept-COVER-nobar