Child care is anything but stable in the province.

Child Care Resource and Referral's co-ordinator Cari Charron said her agency is functioning with reduced funding until March 2008 but expects they will again face challenges at that time.

"I believe we will be once again needing to advocate for child care in B.C. in the new year," she said.

In June, Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid announced the remaining $40 million federal early learning and child care agreement funds were committed to improving B.C.'s child care system.

Twenty million dollars was distributed to providers through the province's Child Care Operating Funding Program which had seen an earlier cut leaving operators with a $4 per child daily shortfall on average, topped up to just $2 per child daily shortfall.

The remaining $20 million was allocated to British Columbia Council for Families to be distributed to not only providers but also governments and all British Columbians.

However, Charron said the biggest crisis still facing child care in this province is loss of qualified child care providers.

"We are losing so many child care providers to other careers that pay better," she said.

She added Alberta has offered a signing bonus to encourage providers to come back to the industry with an additional wage incentive to boost child care staff wages.

NDP child care critic Claire Trevena said in light of the latest population statistics the government needs to provide affordable child care to encourage young families to remain in B.C. and relieve some of the worker shortage challenges.

"This is a time when the province is running a $4.1 billion surplus. It would be more beneficial to B.C.'s economy to build a system that encourages both employment and population growth and helps families," she said.

Charron said she still fields daily calls from parents seeking child care and many are becoming more aware of searching out child care spots long before they actually need the space.

"In a perfect world I think there would be enough quality child care spaces for every child needing care," she said.

"And it would be affordable and the staff would be paid a decent wage."