Excerpt: "The Government of Saskatchewan is introducing legislative changes to The Child Care Act, 2014 to further assist in providing Saskatchewan families with greater access to affordable, high-quality early learning and child care opportunities. "The proposed amendments support our government's efforts to increase access to regulated child care," Education Minister Everett Hindley said. "These changes will allow the ministry to expand the types of regulated services as we work toward the expansion target of 28,000 new child care spaces by 2026.""
Excerpt: "High-quality early learning and child care is foundational to supporting early childhood development and student success. It is also a key enabler of workforce participation, particularly for women, both as parents and providers. Over the years, Ontario has advanced many initiatives to strengthen its early years and child care system. This includes: Providing child care fee subsidies to support lower-income families to access child care; Investing in operator subsidies to help offset costs that would otherwise result in higher child care fees. Support is provided for general operating costs, as well as wage enhancements for qualified staff; Establishing the College of Early Childhood Educators in 2008 as the self-regulatory body for the early childhood education profession in the province and the only regulatory college for early childhood educators in Canada; Rolling out universal full-day kindergarten starting in 2010 to provide a full day of free high-quality programming for all children aged 4 to 5 years in the publicly funded school system across the province; Conducting an annual data collection of child care program operations from licensed child care centres and home child care agencies since 2012 and reporting on the Early Development Instrument (EDI) indicators since 2003; Establishing a modern legislative framework and quality standards, the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 (CCEYA), that governs child care in Ontario. The legislation requires that programming in licensed spaces is aligned with the provincial pedagogy, How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years, 2014, which sets out a vision, values, foundations and approaches to guide practice for high-quality experiences in licensed child care and early years settings; Supporting the recruitment and retention of early childhood educators in child care since 2015 through the Ontario Wage Enhancement Grants; Introducing the Ontario Childcare Access and Relief from Expenses (CARE) tax credit in 2019. The tax credit helps an estimated 300,000 families each year with up to 75% of their eligible child care expenses; Funding EarlyON Child and Family Centres to provide a variety of supports to caregivers and children up to six years old across Ontario. Implementing the CWELCC system in the province to reduce the average parent fees for children under six in participating child care programs to $10 per by the end of fiscal year 2025-26. This includes: a Start-up Grant program to support the creation of new child care spaces in targeted regions and for underserviced communities and populations; an Access and Inclusion Framework to support local service plans as related to inclusion; a workforce strategy to support the recruitment and retention of qualified professionals working in licensed child care; a cost-based funding approach providing support for operating costs for licensees participating in CWELCC for the delivery of child care to children aged 0-5 years; These initiatives continue to shape Ontario’s early years and child care system and benefit children and families in the province. A stable and accessible child care system is crucial in supporting the province moving forward with the implementation of the CWELCC system."
Excerpt: "Today, the Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, accompanied by Yasir Naqvi, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, Marie-France Lalonde, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence and Member of Parliament for Orléans, and Mona Fortier, Member of Parliament for Ottawa-Vanier announced that the Government of Canada will invest approximately $108.5 million over the next three years to enhance and expand access to school food programs in Ontario. This agreement, under the federal government’s National School Food Program, will result in over 9.8 million more meals served to our kids, including 130,000 more school meals served to kids in Indigenous communities across Ontario, this school year."
Excerpt: "Our government is committed to providing Yukoners with high-quality early learning and child care that is affordable, accessible and inclusive. Throughout these discussions, my focus was on bringing the Yukon to the forefront. This includes highlighting the importance of the Government of Canada’s support for the Yukon’s school food programs. Once finalized, the new National School Food Program agreement will help expand these programs, ensuring that more children across the territory receive the nutritious meals they need. This program would benefit families, support the economy and directly invests in our children’s health, education and future."
Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced an agreement with the Government of Prince Edward Island to increase school food programs in the province. This agreement, under the federal government’s National School Food Program, will provide over 1,500 more kids with healthy lunches, and over 800 more kids with healthy breakfasts and snacks this school year. With this agreement, a two-child family in Prince Edward Island will save $800 in grocery bills a year on average. This initial federal investment of approximately $7.1 million over three years will help families and keep more money in their pockets. This investment will also support critical program needs like food transportation, storage, and preparation equipment. All in all, this will result in an estimated 438,000 more meals served to kids across Prince Edward Island this school year."
Excerpt: "The ministers acknowledged that a thriving workforce is critical to ensuring high-quality and inclusive early learning and child care. Building on the work of last year’s meeting, ministers reviewed a jointly developed draft Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Workforce Strategy and discussed a path forward for working together on common goals to stabilize and support the early learning and child care workforce. Ministers recognized that each government can conduct its own engagements on the strategy, such as engaging further with Indigenous governments, communities and organizations. Ministers also recognized that they retain responsibility and authority over how the strategy is implemented in their respective jurisdictions."
Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced an agreement with the Government of Ontario to increase school food programs in the province. This agreement, under the federal government’s National School Food Program, will deliver healthy meals to 160,000 more kids in Ontario this school year. With this agreement, a two-child family in the province will save $800 in grocery bills a year. This initial federal investment of $108.5 million over three years will help families and keep more money in their pockets. Along with increasing funding to school food programs in the province, this investment will also contribute to reduced costs for food transportation, storage, and preparation equipment. All in all, this will result in over 9.8 million more meals served to our kids. This includes 130,000 more school meals served to kids in Indigenous communities across Ontario this year."
Excerpt: "Since the implementation of universal child care in April 2021, and as of March 31, 2024, a total of 477 additional child care spaces have been created in Pelly Crossing, Whitehorse, Ross River, and Dawson. These programs continue to expand and grow, benefiting more children and their families. As of March 31, 2024, 1,896 children and their families were benefiting from universal child care, saving up to $8,400 a year per child enrolled in a licensed program. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the department provided $9,788,917 to licensed programs to support wages and benefits for early childhood educators. Additionally, Yukon families saved $14,153,927 in child care costs through the Government of Yukon’s universal child care and subsidy programs. During this period, 87 bursaries were awarded, including 85 part-time and two full-time bursaries. Of the full-time bursaries, one recipient was from a rural community and one from a Whitehorse French-language program. Twenty-three of the part-time bursaries went to recipients in rural Yukon."
Excerpt: "Today, the Government of Yukon launched the Yukon’s Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Infrastructure Fund, supported by a $7.7 million investment under the Canada-Yukon ELCC Infrastructure Fund Agreement signed in March 2024. This new initiative underscores the Government of Yukon's ongoing commitment to supporting children and families by investing in affordable, accessible and inclusive high-quality early learning and child care. The fund is designed to support current and prospective owners of not-for-profit early learning and child care centres in creating new spaces and improving the accessibility of existing programs. The funding program focuses on four priorities identified during engagement on modernizing the Child Care Act."
Excerpt: "Amendments to the Northwest Territories’ (NWT) Early Learning and Child Care Regulations came into effect November 14, 2024. The updated regulations introduce a wage grid and certification process for licensed centre-based staff. The wage grid establishes the minimum rate of hourly pay for employees based on the community they work in, the type of position they hold, years of experience, education, Indigenous knowledge, and Northern experience."
Excerpt: "The Action Plan outlines the steps Education will take between now and 2033 to implement Nunavut’s ELCC Quality Framework, which was released last year. Both of these key documents support high-quality early learning and child care, with a focus on inclusivity, cultural safety, and community collaboration."
Excerpt: "The workforce is the backbone of licensed child care: they ensure that centres can operate effectively. An enhanced workforce will mean that licensed child care centres are adequately staffed. The Department of Education’s collaboration with Nunavut Arctic College to expand early childhood educator certification will create a skilled workforce that can provide children with high-quality care. Inuit language skills are a workforce priority to promote Inuit language protection and promotion through culturally relevant and responsive care to children."
