A liberal democracy can survive for a while on institutional strength and widespread agreement. As long as most people are generally satisfied with how things are going (or have made peace with the status quo), it is easy to imagine that something like a social contract will keep things on track. Hamish MacAuley makes a persuasive case that many Canadians came of age politically between the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the 2008 financial crisis, when consensus was widespread and politics seemed optional, thus many chose to stay out. We abandoned democratic governing habits during prosperous times. Instead, we played politics. In response, McGill's Jacob T. Levy advocates for political action that rejects the status quo while also refusing to burn it all down or take our ball and go home. We should participate in politics, even if it is unsatisfying. When the foundations of our democratic structure or the rights of vulnerable people are jeopardized, it makes sense to delegate aut
Not much has changed in Oak Bay since then, but I've seen that the small houses that once housed middle-class families and seniors are gradually being replaced by larger modern flats. Peaked roofs and gables are out, while square lines and flat roofs are popular. When done effectively with excellent wood or stone, the modern style can be appealing. Unfortunately, the majority of new homes are neither rich nor tasteful. My coastal road's elegant curve is gradually being bordered with square boxes, as if it were drawn by a very uninspired or dumb child. At the moment, there are no tall condos, but I believe they will be built soon. They are absolutely growing up downtown at an alarming rate.One of the best things about returning to Oak Bay is the near-complete lack of politics. In contrast to Alberta, where rage at Ottawa has dominated provincial politics since at least the first Trudeau, British Columbians' attitude toward Ottawa is one of indifference and ignorance. The Rocky Mountains are a formidable psychological barrier, and anything that makes it over them drowns in the Salish Sea before reaching us. If Vancouver is Lotus Land, as Allan Fotheringham described it, Oak Bay is the Shire: a verdant suburban refuge blissfully unaware of the outside world's whispers.
Even municipal politics is virtually non-existent.
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the mayor ran unopposed in 2022, and the most heated subject in the previous two elections was the local deer slaughter. Don't get me wrong: there is value in active civic politics, but there are also benefits to quiescence. And as I strive to extract as much comfort as I can from the final days of August, I know which I prefer.There aren't many things that everyone can agree on these days, but $10-a-day child care appears to be one.As The Hub's Geoff Russ reported last month, the Liberal plan for $10-a-day child care across Canada is now permanent after the House of Commons unanimously approved legislation establishing the program."With a single vot the Conservative Party seemed to end two decades of opposition to a national child care program," said Russ. Russ said that abolishing national child care is no longer a "credible" option for Conservatives.With $10-a-day child care all but imminent, provincial governments would be well to investigate the documented flaws of the universal, flat-fee model of child care and plan appropriately.Quebec's universal child care program, which has been in place in La Belle province for the past 25 years, has dominated the national discourse around child care. While the program has some positive aspects, it has also been widely criticized for perpetuating socioeconomic inequities in access to adequate childcare. A recent audit done by the province's auditor general discovered that nearly half of the children enrolled in Montreal's highly coveted Centres de la Petite Enfance (CPEs) were from homes earning $200,000 or more per year.
The same study discovered that there.
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was one CPE place for every three eligible children in the affluent district of Westmount, but only one space for every seven children in the working-class suburb of Montréal-Nord.British Columbia's five-year experiment with $10-per-day child care has received less attention. B.C. began the first pilot study of the program in the fall of 2018 and has since opened over 12,700 $10-a-day spots, accounting for nearly 10% of all regulated child care spaces in the province. This provides B.C. a significant advantage over most other provinces.Unfortunately, there are early signs that British Columbia is falling into the same equity trap as Quebec.How does $10-per-day child care operate in British ColumbiaThe Ministry of Education and Child Care in British Columbia oversees a network of 267 ChildcareBC centers, which cost $10 per day. Nine out of ten centers in the network are run by non-profit organizations or public institutions (such as schools and universities). On average, each center serves around 50 youngsters.Licensed child care providers can apply directly to the Ministry to become $10-a-day centers.Successful applications get provincial funds to cover running expenses, minus the $10 per day parental fee collected by the institution. During the 2021-22 expansion of the program, the Ministry received over 600 applications and approved only a handful.Where are the $10-a-day centers located?A quick look at the current list of $10-a-day centers reveals stark regional inequalities. Notably, Vancouver has more than five times the number of centers as Surrey, despite the latter's bigger population of eligible youngsters. Even Victoria, the province's capital, has more centers than Surrey, while having only one-tenth the number of youngsters. (I imagine the province's lawmakers and bureaucrats need a place to stash their brats throughout the day).
Image credit: Janice Nelson.
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Despite accounting for only 40% of the province's population, the Vancouver Coastal and Vancouver Island regions collectively host more than half of B.C.'s $10-a-day centers. Meanwhile, the densely populated Fraser Valley has only two centres for every 100,000 people.Image credit: Janice Nelson.The Ministry of Education and Child Care has addressed the issue and announced that it will prioritize communities with a "low proportion of $10-a-day spaces compared to population density" in future application cycles. It is unclear whether it will keep its commitment.Are $10-a-day centers concentrated in affluent neighborhoods?The good news is that, according to neighbourhood-level statistics I gathered in Vancouver, there is minimal evidence of an income discrepancy in access to $10-a-day childcare. There is a negative link between neighborhood median income and $10-per-day child care spots. This relationship remains statistically significant even when Vancouver's troublesome Downtown Eastside (DTES) is removed from the sample of neighbourhoods. On average, a $10,000 decline in area income results in 26.5 extra spots (excluding DTES).mage credit: Janice Nelson.This is not to suggest that the allocation of places in Vancouver is perfectly equitable. Thecentral commercial sector and the University of British Columbia endowment lands have the most parking spots in the city. These two sites account for four out of every ten $10-per-day parking spaces in the city.Given Quebec's history, it's not unexpected that centers concentrate in areas of the city with a large proportion of white-collar workers. This suggests that, barring any countervailing social policies, reasonably well-off urban professionals are the group most likely to profit from the Canada-wide introduction of $10-a-day childcare.
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