Minister says she rejected daycare at B.C. legislature because area is well served

Legislature daycare rejected

Photo: The Canadian Press

The B.C. legislature is pictured in downtown Victoria, B.C., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Plans by the British Columbia legislative assembly to open a childcare facility remain up in the air after the provincial government rejected a funding request.

The legislature had applied for the funding in February 2024, but B.C.'s Ministry of Education and Child Care informed the legislature in March that the application was unsuccessful.

Minister Lisa Beare says she rejected the application because child care needs were higher elsewhere, adding that the Victoria neighbourhood around the legislature is already well served.

Beare says her ministry is working with the legislature on its application for the next funding window, and legislative assembly clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd has said the project remains in a "state of readiness."

A 2023 report says that the child care needs of staff working for the legislature and party caucuses would receive priority over the needs of members of the legislative assembly.

The same report pegs the estimated capital cost of the one-storey modular building that would be operated by a not-for-profit at $2 million with another $195,000 for playground equipment.