More $10 a day daycare?

B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad said he plans to extend $10 a day daycare if he’s elected in the Oct. 19 election, though he was unable to say how that would be funded.

“No question, in my mind, childcare is a significant issue,” Rustad said while on a Friday campaign stop in Kelowna.

"It's a significant issue here in the Okanagan, but it's a significant issue right across this province, as more and more families look to how to address the childcare issue.”

Rustad said 60 per cent of parents have indicated they are struggling to find childcare in B.C. and are stuck on long waitlists. This, he said, requires a "common sense approach."

“Our approach will be to maintain $10 a day daycare, but we're going to make sure that it is designed to be able to actually meet the needs across this province,” Rustad said.

He said the party would end the “funding bias against independent schools” and that private childcare providers are needed to meet the needs.

When asked how the party would fund the expansion of $10 a day daycare, he was unable to do so on Friday.

“As we continue to move forward in this campaign, in the very near future, we will have some real platform (information that) will also have an outline,” he said.

He also said that he would want to see $10 a day spaces dedicated to lower income British Columbians first.

"We need to make sure that we have the workforce that we need," he said.

"Childcare is something that is critical in this province. We need to be able to get our economy going. We need to be able to bring common sense back into British Columbia and the best way to do that is (when) government steps up to the plate and supports childcare in the way that is needed for people right across this province."