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Excerpt: "In education, our government continues to invest in the repair and construction of new schools. Approximately $1.4 billion in funding supported nearly 3,500 repair and rehabilitation projects. In the 2023–24 school year, 21 new schools and additions were opened, creating over 7,000 new student spaces, including six French-language school projects and over 700 child care spaces. That means more Ontario students have begun the school year in modern, state-of-the-art classrooms."

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OISE Professor Emerita Sandra Acker of The Social Production of Research: Perspectives on Funding and Gender.

Excerpt: "To keep up with fast-rising student enrolment, Alberta’s government is committing $8.6 billion through the new School Construction Accelerator Program. This program will create more than 200,000 new and modernized spaces for students to learn, grow and reach their full potential. Starting in Budget 2025, Alberta’s government will kick-start up to 30 new schools and as many as eight modernizations and replacement schools every year for the next three years."

Excerpt: "Rural operators in particular pointed out the increased costs in small Yukon communities, lower incomes within rural families and the necessity for foundational supports in early learning and child care programs such as meal programs, and at times, provisions like diapers and suitable clothing for children. In the early childhood educators’ sessions, there was a call for increased wages and benefits such as sick leave. For some, it was about access to funding to upgrade their education and the possibility of expanded bursary programs to support post-secondary early learning and child care education"

Excerpt: "More Métis families will benefit from increased access to culturally based child care with more than 200 new child care spaces opening or on the way. “Métis children and families benefit from access to culturally relevant and high-quality early education,” said Rachna Singh, Minister of Education and Child Care. “This is why our government is working with Métis Nation BC to support the creation of new child care centres for Métis communities. By supporting our younger learners in environments that honour their culture, we’re helping to build stronger, more resilient communities.” Métis Nation British Columbia (MNBC) has received $13.9 million in federal funding since 2022 through B.C.’s Ministry of Education and Child Care to create five new child care facilities that cater to the cultural needs of Métis families."

Excerpt: "Three new AHS centres are providing a total of 108 new child care spaces, including 48 spaces in Colwood, 44 in Kelowna and 20 in Vancouver. AHS is a culturally relevant early-learning and child care program for Indigenous children up to age six and their families that provides wraparound family support and inclusion services at no cost."

Dr. Petr Varmuza

Excerpt: "Ontario’s first “Service Plan for Child Care Services” (1992) came into existence as a negotiated response to successive provincial governments’ dislike of Toronto’s long-standing effort to move beyond the administration of the child care subsidy system and equitably manage the provision of services across, what was then, Metropolitan Toronto. Additionally, the provision of municipally operated child care centres was a special target, as it is now, regardless the important function they played in the most disadvantaged communities.

Since then, service plans became a provincially mandated documents usually produced on a five-year cycle consisting of listening to the service providers and soliciting public input primarily from parents searching for child care or child care subsidy. Rarely there is a formal, public review of the accomplishments since the approval of the previous plan, including the full range of successes and failures. Once approved by the municipal authority, they often undergo minimum public scrutiny, ongoing evaluation and review."

I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt appreciation for joining us at the Centre for Black Studies in Education’s 2nd Anniversary Celebration on September 5.

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