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Excerpt: "To include s. 2.1 under Elementary School Classes – Requirements Respecting Size. This section provides class size provisions for full-day junior kindergarten and kindergarten, clearly identifying an average class size unit of 26 pupils."

Excerpt: "While the company’s website suggests that Edleun centres are focused on improving the quality of the early childhood system, research consistently shows that for-profit programs provide lower quality child care. The rationale for using for-profit operators is typically to reduce the onus on government, legitimized as being more innovative and cost effective. Research suggests however that non-profit or publicly owned programs are consistently found to provide higher quality services (Cleveland, 2008, Penn, 2010). The Australian experience demonstrates how a corporate child care monopoly can hold government ransom with regard to oversight, reduced regulations, and increasing parental fees."

The Ministry of Education, Early Learning Division announced an interim policy regarding capital funding to replace child care spaces in replacement schools. The funding would affect "child care spaces for children aged 0 to 3.8 years old located in schools that are scheduled to close or to be rebuilt."

On February 8, 2012, Kerry McCuaig, Atkinson Fellow Early Childhood Policy presented on the Early Years Study 3: Making Decisions, Taking Action at a Human Development and Applied Psychology Colloquium. The Early Years Study 3 documents the social, economic and scientific rationale for increased investments in early childhood education. It also introduces the Early Childhood Education Index to monitor the funding, policy, access and quality of early education programming.

Excerpt: "The Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten Program (Draft 2010) has been in draft form for the first two years of implementation of the Full Day Kindergarten program, during which time the Ministry of Education has been accepting informal feedback. This response is written as part of the formal two-part review process being conducted by the Ministry.... This critical phase of reviewing and revising the Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten Program provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on the document’s strengths and areas for improvement."

On January 11, 2012, the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development announced a plan "to reorganize school districts; increase parents’ involvement on district education councils; and to pay chairs and members of these councils."

Excerpt: We estimate that in 2008 universal access to low-fee childcare in Quebec induced nearly 70,000 more mothers to hold jobs than if no such program had existed - an increase of 3.8% in women employment. By our calculation, Quebec's domestic income (GDP) was higher by about 1.7% ($5 billion) as a result. We run a simulation of the impact of the childcare program on government own-source revenues and family transfers. We find that the tax-transfer return the federal and Quebec governments get from the program significantly exceeds its costs."

Statistics Canada predicts that the Aboriginal identity population in Canada could be between 1.7 million and 2.2 million by 2031 "representing between 4.0% and 5.3% of the total population. The average annual growth rate of the Aboriginal identity population as a whole during this period would be between 1.1% and 2.2%, compared with 1.0% for the non-Aboriginal population. In 2006, an estimated 1.3 million people reported an Aboriginal identity. These populations accounted for 3.9% of the Canadian population. Among them, 785,000 were North American Indians, 404,000 were Métis and 53,000 were Inuit..."

Educational Childcare Services-Audit objectives: Obtain the assurance that the Ministère de la Famille et des Aînés: Had taken measures to set up a quality network of educational childcare services, in accordance with the Educational Childcare Act and sound management rules and practices; Evaluates its performance and makes adequate accountability reports on the quality of educational childcare services.

Alberta has launched Our Children, Our Future: Getting it Right Public Consultations on the Education Act. The government will hold forums in seven communities on education legislation.

The report on full day early learning, envisioned family-friendly schools where, “…hours after the last bell has rung the school is still buzzing. Parents come and go, picking up children who have participated in extended programming. There are recreational, arts, and social activities and homework clubs for the children, and a concurrent parenting program is running.”

Lots of studies show us that the early years are crucial for how we manage as adults. We have an election coming up tomorrow. We encourage you to think about research findings about our children’s development. Please cast your vote thinking about what matters for our children.