One of this province’s biggest advocates for $10 a day childcare says families who are experiencing it in British Columbia are calling it life changing.

Sharon Gregson says there are currently two daycares in Kamloops running under the prototype $10 a day model.

“There are 53 prototypes of the $10 a day childcare across the province impacting about 2,500 children,” she says.

“I talked to families where parents are literally in tears when they talk about the impact it’s having in their family that they can move from having three jobs to one job, that parents can actually start buying nutritious food, that they can start to actually save for retirement.”

Gregson says some of those families actually feel guilty about reaping the benefits of the subsidized model while other parents continue to suffer with high rates.

“Whether I’m in Fort Nelson or in Haida Gwaii or in Nakusp or in Kamloops, there’s a childcare crisis in every community,” Gregson said.

“Fees are too high, it’s a little bit relative, but they are high wherever you go. There are not enough licenced spaces and the mostly women who work in childcare are in poverty wages for the most part. There’s a long road to go to fix the system.”

She says the provincial government is moving in the right direction but more childcare spaces need to be created under the public not private system.

“Let’s build the kind of childcare system that all families can access the same way they access elementary schools,” she says. “I guess what our advocacy is doing now is keeping up the pressure.”

Earlier this week, Kamloops city council voted unanimously to become the 56th B.C. community to throw their support behind the $10 a day childcare plan.