It was a big victory for Gregson and countless other advocates.
“Personally, I got messages from across the country,” Gregson says. “People who were ecstatic! People who were offering their congratulations.”
But the joy was short-lived. The following day, British Columbia announced its provincial budget, allotting just $233 million in the next three years to building out B.C.’s child care system.
It was a stark difference from the NDP’s promise of an extra $750 million annually for child care during last fall’s election campaign.
“To say it was a lacklustre budget for child care is probably an understatement,” Gregson says. “I think that people across the country were saying, ‘What the heck happened in B.C.?!’ Because we had, for the last three years, been a leader on child care.”