Soon, the Fédération des parents will make public a study of Francophone child care in British Columbia.

The study profiles the current situation regarding the number of accessible spaces in Francophone early childhood daycare facilities in the province. It addresses the key issues and needs of the Francophone child care sector. The study also provides a statistical portrait with respect to the potential number of Francophone children in need of a child care facility in British Columbia. These statistics are important to adequately identify the demand, and to better target and measure the impact of our actions.

A significant number of research studies have demonstrated the impact of access to services in French from birth. These services can ensure the transmission of French language and Francophone culture from one generation to another. The Fédération des parents advocates the development of a continuum of early childhood services in French, without interruption, from birth through to admission to a Francophone school. However, the Francophone community currently has very few spaces in child care facilities for children aged three and under. The Fédération des parents would like to correct this over the coming years.

The Francophone community currently doesn’t have the ability to provide the services necessary to meet the demand for spaces in child care facilities. The community also lacks the ability to ensure that the current Francophone child care network can grow enough to accommodate the potential pool of Francophone children aged zero to four.

To mitigate this situation, the Fédération des parents is now working with its members and partners, including the Société de développement économique de la C.-B., to put together a team whose sole mission would be to create new spaces in Francophone child care facilities in British Columbia.

As a result, the Fédération could start and manage child care facilities on its own, or it could help not-for-profit societies to start new preschool centres or expand existing ones, as well as offer those societies enhanced support services for managing preschool centres and developing quality programming.

The current network of Francophone child care facilities has close to 20 daycare centres and preschools, welcoming a little more than 350 children and employing about 75 people, and having a combined revenue of over three million dollars annually. The objective is to have, within three years, 26 centres providing services to 550 children, with revenue greater than five million dollars annually.

The economic benefits of such an expansion of the child care network would represent a significant contribution to communities across the province and to the Canadian Francophone community as a whole.

The Fédération des parents acknowledges the financial support of the Canada-British Columbia Official Languages Agreement on French-Language Services, of the Ministry of Education of British Columbia, and of the Government of Canada.