Open a licensed daycare centre in BC: the health-authority licence, group ratios, ECE staffing, facility rules, fees, and ChildCareBC funding.
Applies in: British Columbia
British Columbia does not licence daycare centres through a ministry storefront. The Community Care and Assisted Living Act puts the licence in the hands of the five regional health authorities, and the Child Care Licensing Regulation sets the operating rules: which programs you may run, how many children fit in a room, who may staff it, and how much floor and yard each child needs. This guide is about the centre model only — group care in a facility. If you want to care for children in your own home, the rules, the child limits, and the qualifications are all different, and our home daycare guide for British Columbia covers that path.
A centre licence is not one permission; it is a set of care programs, and your licence lists the ones you are approved for:
Individuals and organizations can both open a licensed location. That is one of the clean splits from home care: a Family Child Care licence can only be held by a person providing care in their own residence, while a centre licence attaches to a facility and a licensee, whoever operates it.
Contact the Community Care Licensing program at your regional health authority (Fraser, Interior, Island, Northern, or Vancouver Coastal) before you commit to a building. Your local Child Care Resource and Referral (CCRR) centre is built for exactly this conversation: it connects new operators with the health authority to begin the licensing process, walks you through the application package, and later supports your ChildCareBC funding applications.
Do this first because the licence is issued for a specific building and a specific licensee. A licensing officer cannot guarantee a proposed space is licensable before the site inspection, and municipal zoning for a child care facility at that address is your problem to confirm, not the health authority's.
You must be 19 or older to apply. The formal step is an application in writing to the medical health officer, together with the records listed in Schedule B of the regulation. In practice the package your health authority hands you covers:
Two duties start on day one and never stop. You must tell the licensing officer immediately if anything in your application changes, and you may not make a structural change to the facility later without submitting plans and getting written approval first.
The health authority issues the licence, but it will not issue it into a vacuum. Fraser Health describes the approvals a licence waits on, and the list is the same shape across the province:
Run these in parallel with Step 2. The licensing timeline is several weeks to months, and most of that time is spent waiting on other offices, not on the licensing officer.
Section 14 and section 16 of the Child Care Licensing Regulation are where leases go wrong, because they convert directly into licensed capacity:
Work the arithmetic backwards: usable indoor area divided by 3.7 is the largest group total your rooms can hold, before the Schedule E group caps in Step 5 cut it further.
Centres are staffed by certificate holders. The certificates come from the provincial Early Childhood Educator Registry, and you must verify each one in the Registry's system before the employee provides care:
The ratios those staff must fill, from Schedule E:
| Program | Group cap | Staffing ladder |
|---|---|---|
| Group Child Care (Under 36 Months) | 12 | 1–4 children: 1 Infant Toddler Educator. 5–8: add 1 educator. 9–12: add 1 assistant |
| Group Child Care (30 Months to School Age) | 25 | 1–8: 1 educator. 9–16: add 1 assistant. 17–25: add a second assistant |
| Preschool (30 Months to School Age) | 20 | 1–10: 1 educator. 11–20: add 1 assistant |
| Group Child Care (School Age) | 24 or 30 | Up to 12 (or 15): 1 responsible adult. 13 to 24 (or 16 to 30): 2 responsible adults |
Every employee file needs a criminal record check under the Criminal Records Review Act, character references, a work history record, copies of diplomas and certificates, and proof of compliance with the provincial immunization and tuberculosis control programs. Children must have immediate access at all times to an employee holding a valid first aid and CPR certificate. One more rule that shapes your org chart: your manager cannot manage another community care facility at the same time, and the licence, its terms, your manager's name, and your staff certificates must be displayed in a prominent place in the centre. For the worker-side view of these credentials, our guide to becoming an early childhood educator in Ontario shows how a sister registry works — British Columbia's Registry sets its own levels, so confirm yours there.
The medical health officer must investigate each application. Your licensing officer assesses whether you are suitable and capable of protecting the health, safety, and well-being of the children, reviews the written submissions, confirms the municipal and environmental approvals, and inspects the site. If the officer identifies problems, you fix them before the licence issues — the licence is the last step, not the first.
After opening, the oversight continues: licensed facilities are monitored and regularly inspected by the health authority, and inspection reports for licensed facilities are published for parents to read. Build your record-keeping (facility records and policies, a record for each child, care plans where needed) as if a parent will read it, because parents can.
The licence covers the care. The business behind it still needs the standard setup: register your business name with BC Registries if you operate under a name other than your own, get a CRA business number, and keep the centre's money in its own account. Child care fees are exempt from GST, so there is no GST to charge on them (see the FAQ above).
Then apply for funding through My ChildCareBC Services:
| New licence application, Fraser Health | $75 |
|---|---|
| New licence application, Interior Health and Northern Health | No application fee (related costs still apply) |
| Child Care Operating Funding, group care under 36 months | $12.00 per enrolment per day for care over 4 hours ($6.00 for 4 hours or less) |
| Child Care Operating Funding, group care 3 years to kindergarten | $5.48 per enrolment per day for care over 4 hours ($2.74 for 4 hours or less) |
| Affordable Child Care Benefit maximum, group care under 19 months | $1,250 per month (income-tested, paid to families through the provider claim) |
Application fees are set by each health authority and differ by region — confirm yours before you budget. Funding rates from the Child Care Operating Funding base funding page and the Affordable Child Care Benefit rates page on gov.bc.ca.
Yes, once you care for three or more children who are not related to you by blood or marriage. The licence comes from your regional health authority under the Community Care and Assisted Living Act and the Child Care Licensing Regulation — there is no separate provincial ministry application. Caring for one or two unrelated children is licence-not-required care, a different and much smaller model covered in our home daycare guide for British Columbia.
Scale, staffing, and setting. A Licensed Family Child Care provider works alone in their own home, cares for at most 7 children, and needs no Early Childhood Educator certificate — 20 hours of child care training as a responsible adult is the bar. A centre runs group programs in a facility: Group Child Care (Under 36 Months) takes up to 12 children per group, Group Child Care (30 Months to School Age) up to 25, and the rooms must be staffed by certified Early Childhood Educators and assistants. Centres can be run by individuals or organizations; a family licence can only be held by a person in their own residence.
Your regional health authority — Fraser Health, Interior Health, Island Health, Northern Health, or Vancouver Coastal Health — through its Community Care Licensing program. You must be 19 or older, and you apply in writing to the medical health officer with the application plus the records listed in Schedule B of the Child Care Licensing Regulation. Start with a call to the licensing office or your local Child Care Resource and Referral centre: they hand you the package for your region and flag the municipal zoning, business licensing, and fire safety steps that sit alongside it.
British Columbia does not set one provincial application fee — each health authority sets its own. Fraser Health charges $75 for a new child care licence application. Interior Health and Northern Health state there is no cost to get a licence. Either way, the application fee is the small line in the budget: criminal record checks, first aid training, staff certification, lead sampling for drinking water where required, equipment, and your municipal business licence are the costs that add up.
Schedule E of the Child Care Licensing Regulation sets both the group cap and the staffing ladder. Group Child Care (Under 36 Months): maximum 12 children per group — 1 to 4 children need one Infant Toddler Educator; 5 to 8 need an Infant Toddler Educator plus one other educator; 9 to 12 add an assistant. Group Child Care (30 Months to School Age): maximum 25, with no more than 2 children under 36 months in a group — 1 to 8 need one educator, 9 to 16 add an assistant, 17 to 25 need a second assistant. Preschool groups cap at 20. School-age groups cap at 24 when a preschool child or a Grade 1 child is present, and 30 when none is.
Certificates issued through the provincial Early Childhood Educator Registry, and the licence holder must verify each certificate in the Registry system before the person starts. An Early Childhood Educator certificate requires a recognized basic early childhood education program plus 500 hours of relevant work experience. An Infant Toddler Educator certificate adds a post-basic infant and toddler program on top of the ECE certificate — the government describes it as roughly 1,300 hours of training in total, against roughly 900 hours for the basic ECE. An Early Childhood Educator Assistant certificate requires one early childhood education course (child guidance, child health safety and nutrition, or child development) completed within the last five years. Every staff file also needs a criminal record check, character references, a work history record, and evidence of compliance with the provincial immunization and tuberculosis control programs.
The regulation sets hard numbers. Indoors: at least 3.7 square metres of usable floor area per child, not counting hallways, built-in storage, bathrooms, or fixed appliances. Outdoors: at least 6 square metres of enclosed outdoor play area per child. You need one toilet and one wash basin for every 10 children or fewer, on the same floor as the care rooms. Any program serving children under 36 months needs a separate sleeping area away from the activity areas, and a diaper-changing surface outside the food preparation area, next to a wash basin and a covered container for soiled clothing. Measure your space against these numbers before you sign a lease — they set your licensed capacity.
A licensing officer investigates every application: the officer reviews your written submissions, checks that the municipal approvals (fire, building, zoning, business licence) and environmental health requirements are in place, and inspects the premises on site. The licence cannot be issued until every legislative requirement is met, and the officer cannot promise in advance that a space will pass — the site inspection is the test. The process takes several weeks to months depending on the application. After you open, licensed facilities are monitored and regularly inspected by the health authority, and the licence itself is tied to you and to that address: change the licensee or move, and a new application is required.
Three ChildCareBC programs, all applied for after you are licensed, through My ChildCareBC Services. Child Care Operating Funding base funding pays a daily rate per enrolled child — for group care, $12.00 a day for a child under 36 months in care over 4 hours, $5.48 for a child from 3 years to kindergarten, and $2.80 for a school-age child. The Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative pays the centre to lower parent fees directly, in exchange for fee-increase limits (3 percent of the regional median fee, with a 9.5-hour day required before extra-hour fees since April 1, 2026). The $10 a Day ChildCareBC program is a separate application, and centres funded through it are funded there instead of through base funding. Families can also receive the Affordable Child Care Benefit — up to $1,250 a month for a child under 19 months in group care, income-tested.
No. Child care services are an exempt supply under the GST/HST rules, so you do not add GST to parent fees anywhere in Canada, British Columbia included. The trade-off is that you generally cannot claim input tax credits on purchases used to make exempt supplies — CRA Guide RC4022 states that rule for exempt supplies. The CRA's GST/HST Memorandum 21-1 (Child Care Services) confirms the child care exemption.
Rules are current as of November 2026. Confirm the application package, fee, and inspection steps with your regional health authority's Community Care Licensing program before you sign a lease or hire staff.