Excerpt: "Under the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, $34.7 million will be allocated to the existing operating grants through an additional Wage Grid Supplement to support wage equity for early learning and child-care sector staff who care for children under the age of seven. The funding will allow non-profit child-care boards to develop fair, consistent and competitive wage scales for early childhood educators and child-care assistants across the province. The wage grid in the Canada-wide agreement sets out equitable wage targets to provide funded facilities with guidance on wages for child-care assistants and early childhood educators."
Excerpt: "Building a barrier-free country is a key priority for the Government of Canada. That is why it is working closely with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners to create an early learning and child care system that is high quality, affordable, accessible and inclusive. These efforts will help ensure that all families in Canada – including those with children with disabilities – have access to child care that is adapted to their needs, and inclusive from the start. Today, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, joined with Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, to announce $12.5 million in funding support for 225 regulated and/or licensed early learning and child care centres across Canada through the Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) small projects component of the Enabling Accessibility Fund (EAF)."
Except: [June 21, 2022], the Provincial and Federal Governments announced that YMCA of Newfoundland and Labrador (YMCA-NL) has been selected by the province as the not-for-profit organization that will operate all of the initial locations in the Pre-Kindergarten early learning pilot program set to open in 2022-23.
Excerpt: "Applications are being accepted from child care providers to join the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program this year, which will enable them to offer low-cost child care, making life more affordable for thousands more families in B.C. Spaces in the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program reduce the average cost of child care from $1,000 a month (for full-time, centre-based infant care) at facilities participating in the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative (CCFRI) to $200 a month, saving families an average of about $800 a month per child."
Excerpt: "Today, Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, joined Becky Druhan, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, at East Preston Day Care to announce that 1,500 new licensed child care spaces will be created across Nova Scotia by December 31, 2022. The focus will be on creating spaces in areas of the province with limited access to child care services. The ministers also noted that, as of January 1, families in Nova Scotia with children in licensed child care are benefiting from a 25% reduction in fees, and that they will receive an additional 25% reduction by the end of 2022."
Excerpt: "Ontario values the important role of child care and early years professionals. Since 2015, Ontario has supported recruitment and retention of RECEs in child care through the Ontario Wage Enhancement Grant. In 2021, Ontario invested $203 million to help attract and retain RECEs within Ontario's child care system and support access to stable, high quality child care programs."
Excerpt: "Under the new program, the Government of Yukon provides licensed operators with $700 per month for each child in full-time child care, which must be fully and immediately applied to reduce the monthly payments made by parents (this is pro-rated for children in part-time child care). The new program also includes fee increase limits to ensure that fees charged to parents remain both sustainable and affordable and in line with rates charged by other local providers delivering the same type of child care. Under Yukon’s universal child care program, average parent fees are now less than $10 per day, among the lowest in Canada."
Excerpt: "Challenges related to training, recruitment and retention of qualified ELCC staff is seen across Nunavut. Very few ELCC educators have any type of formal early childhood educators (ECE) training which reduces the desire to work within the field. Many centres hire staff who are willing to work for low wages, but due to lack of training and competitive wages, many chose to leave the field within a short time. This creates a revolving door of ELCC educators which decreases the ability to keep centres open to full capacity and provide high quality childcare. Competitive wages are needed to recruit and retain interested people to work within the ELCC sector. Enhanced training and understanding of children’s needs, programming and day to day operations of a high-quality childcare system is also highly needed. Providing specialized training to support the growth of understanding and services provided to children and competitive wages is key to the growth and stability of ELCC in Nunavut."
Excerpt: "BC will allocate funds through its existing contract to support students for 3 to 4 academic years (fiscal year 2021 to 2022 through fiscal year 2023 to 2024 or fiscal year 2024 to 2025) and will ensure collaboration with Indigenous partners and rights holders on approaches to funding specific to Indigenous students. Students will continue to be able to apply for the student bursary stream at $500 per course (maximum of 8 courses per semester) to assist with tuition and living costs. Individuals actively working in child care who wish to upgrade their credentials will be able to continue to apply for the workforce bursary stream of up to $5,000 per semester to assist with tuition and other expenses such as loss of wages or travel. Amounts for the Indigenous bursary stream will be determined in consultation with Indigenous partners. Students can apply for bursaries for each semester they are taking courses, so one student can potentially receive multiple bursaries. BC commits to continuing to report out on outcomes for as long as the program is available through this funding."
Excerpt: "Today the Provincial Government announced more than 30 locations for a pilot Pre-Kindergarten early learning program that will open in 2022-23. The pilot will result in approximately 600 new regulated child care spaces in communities throughout the province. These locations are the first in the Pre-Kindergarten early learning program created through the Federal-Provincial Early Learning Action Plan, set for full implementation by 2025-26. The full list of locations in the pilot can be found in the backgrounder below. As a regulated full-day early learning program, families will pay the regulated child care rate for each child in Pre-Kindergarten ($15 per day for the remainder of 2022, $10 per day starting in 2023). The program will run full-time, including during the summer months. The Pre-Kindergarten program will be run by not-for-profit organization(s), and registration dates for families will be announced by these operator(s) once opening dates are finalized for each site."
Excerpt: "Alberta agrees to use funds provided by Canada under this Agreement to support the expansion of licensed child care, and prioritize not-for-profit (including publically delivered and family day home child care) early learning and child care programs and services,for children 0 to K, where: licensed programs and services are defined as those that meet standards that are established and/or monitored by Alberta; not-for-profit providers/operations, which includes publically delivered operations, are defined as those that provide child care services to a community for a purpose other than generating a profit, typically improving family and/or child well being and/or development. Providers may generate a profit, but the surplus earnings, or other resources, are directed towards improving child care services rather than distributed for the personal benefit of owners, members, investors or to enhance asset growth. Early learning and child care programs and services are defined as those supporting direct care and early learning for children in settings including, but not limited to, regulated child care centres, regulated family child care homes, early learning centres, preschools and nursery schools."
Excerpt: "Readily accessible and affordable early learning and child care gives children a strong foundation, allows parents to participate in the workforce and leads to stronger families. Building on hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to date, Budget 2022 includes $94.7 million through the Provincial-Federal Action Plan, including: Almost $46 million to continue the reduction in daily fees to $10 per day by 2023; $16 million for the creation of new regulated early learning spaces, including the launch of a pre-kindergarten pilot program. Supports plans to create nearly 6,000 new regulated early learning spaces by 2026; $3 million to increase seats in post-secondary Early Childhood Education programs; $400,000 to support a wage grid analysis and implementation that will ensure early childhood educators are paid a wage that reflects their important work."
