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Meet our faculty winners of this year's awards of excellence, who have gone above and beyond.

Learn about the Meeting Owl for hybrid meetings.

This year, we're recognizing 12 individuals and teams with an OISE Staff Excellence Award.

Excerpt: "Under Budget 2021, the Province committed to expanding the number of $10 a Day spaces in B.C. by converting 3,750 licensed child care spaces into low-cost spaces for families. The B.C. government has now surpassed this goal by creating 4,015 $10 a Day spaces for families in communities throughout B.C."

The University of Toronto has announced the winners of the 2022 Awards of Excellence.

Excerpt: "In less than a year, the federal government reached agreements with all 13 provinces and territories. This means, by the end of 2022, that Canadian families will have seen their child care fees reduced by an average of 50 per cent. By 2025-26, it will mean an average child care fee of $10-a-day for all regulated child care spaces across Canada. Most provinces and territories are also moving ahead with faster than anticipated initiatives to support access to affordable high-quality child care spaces.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories have already cut child care fees in half. In Ontario, fees will be reduced by an initial 25 per cent retroactive to April 1, 2022. Yukon has already put in place a $10-a-day target for child care spaces as of April 1, 2021, five years ahead of schedule. Prince Edward Island is targeting $10-a-day spaces by the end of 2024."

Brahm Fleisch

The Atkinson Centre promotes research on child development, and the development of early learning policy and practice that serve young children and their families.

Ontario announced that it signed the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, which promises to bring parent fees down to an average of $10 a day.

Excerpt: "On April 1, 2022, the eligibility for these wage enhancements expanded to ensure more ECEs will benefit. Previously, the $4-an-hour wage enhancement program was only available to front-line ECEs working directly with children. Budget 2022 is providing nearly $80 million over the next three years to expand this enhancement to all ECEs directly employed by licensed child care programs, including Supported Child Development and Aboriginal Supported Child Development professionals with ECE certification."

Excerpt: "In October 2021, the Atkinson Centre commissioned an evaluation to inform future editions of the ECER in the context of past experiences and in light of the intended development of a Canada -Wide Early Learning and Child Care system. This new policy direction and accompanying increase in public investment will require comprehensive data collection and monitoring to promote children’s equitable access to quality programming and provide accountability for public funding.

Dr. David Philpott, a recently retired professor from Memorial University with an extensive research and publication history, conducted the review. A total of 93 key informants representing four groups participated in the research: government officials in divisions of early learning and child care; academics and advocates; faculty in Early Childhood Education (ECE) training programs; and the ECER’s authors and funders, who provided background information, analytics and suggested key informants."

Posted on The Conversation.

Excerpt: "The early learning and care workforce is female dominated and racialized. It’s among the lowest-paid sectors even compared to other female-dominated jobs requiring similar education and experience.

When compared to male professions with similar education and training requirements, the wage gap is even more staggering, and shows how our society’s devaluation of labour related to educating and caring for young children is deeply gendered."