David Eby admits using $10/day childcare; B.C Conservatives react

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Premier David Eby confirming today that his family has in fact used a $10-a-day childcare space. This as thousands of BC families remain on waiting lists and the program's expansion is sitting paused. The BC Conservatives today calling it shocking. My next guest is Margareta Dovgal, BC Conservative candidate for Vancouver Yaletown, kind enough to join me here on a Thanksgiving Monday. Welcome to the program, Margareta.

Hey, Rob. Happy Thanksgiving.

Well, right back at ya. Why do you think this is such a serious issue for voters beyond just the optics?

Well, I think it's just embarrassing for David Eby. You know, his government has campaigned on making life easier for British Columbians, and here he is using a taxpayer-funded program that is not means tested in BC, that's a design that his government chose, uh, to take advantage of something that has limited capacity. You know, there's single mothers who need those spaces. Uh, we heard from him there apparently was some kind of donation made to the childcare space. I have to ask how much that donation was and whether it actually covers the 10,000 a year plus of the value of taxpayer dollars to support a single child in one of these subsidized spots.

Now, some would say that his family is entitled to childcare just like anybody else, and that the real focus should be on expanding access. Uh, what's your response to that?

I think it is a standard that is held to public decision-makers. The premier of this province knows full well just how limited those spots are, and he's also highest paid person in his type of pay class, I think to the tune of $227,000 a year on public record. Uh, his wife is a practicing medical doctor. You know, that's a household that has means, and other households, both those who are making as much as David Eby and his wife and those who are very much not, want access to spots like that. They want access to childcare options that the NDP has made difficult for British Columbians to get.

I'm gonna play some audio. We had Sharon Gregson on. She's spokesperson for the Coalition for Childcare Advocates of BC. She, uh, she ki- she helped me kick off the show today. Uh, she was talking about this. I'd love to get your reaction on the other side of this clip.

We want his family to have 10 a day as much as we want your family and my family and all your listeners to have access, if they choose, licensed childcare. But to have only 10% of spaces in the province be 10 a day and to be talking about not expanding it any further, which is what they did in the last budget, it really seems less than great. Uh, not, not a good look.

One of these things has to be true. You have to either make