Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "The proposed ELCC act will increase transparency and accountability by requiring the Province to produce annual reports on its progress towards building an inclusive, universal child care system. The report will also include how the Province is collaborating with Indigenous peoples to support Indigenous-led child care. The ELCC act will also give the minister responsible the authority to create new regulations, including the ability to set limits on child care fees for parents. This will help ensure child care is more affordable for families."

Excerpt: "More families than ever are benefiting from better access to quality, affordable child care, thanks to the fastest creation of child care spaces in B.C.’s history. The Province has exceeded its original three-year goal and has funded nearly 26,000 new licensed child care spaces since the 10-year Childcare BC plan was launched in 2018. Nearly 70% of these spaces are expected to be open for families within the next year."

Excerpt: "The Active Families Benefit will provide families with an annual income of less than $60,000 up to $150 per year, per child or $200 per year, per child for children who are eligible for the federal Child Disability Tax Credit. This benefit helps with the costs associated with enrolling children in sport and recreation activities. This investment is part of the 2021-22 Budget and will be retroactive to January 1, 2021. Parents who enroll their children in sport, culture and recreation activities in the 2021 calendar year are therefore reminded to keep their receipts so they may claim the benefit with their 2021 tax filings."

Excerpt: "Both projects have been supported by more than $1.6 million in capital grants through the 2020-21 Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, along with more than $405,000 in start-up and annual operating grant funding. The Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement delivers more than $15 million annually for early learning and child-care investments in Manitoba. In total with the investments in 2020-21, the federal government will have provided Manitoba with a total of approximately $62.4 million over four years for early learning and child care. The governments of Canada and Manitoba are working to extend the current bilateral agreement to continue to support the early learning and child-care sector."

Excerpt: "The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue and the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development announced today that the CCB young child supplement (CCBYCS) will take effect later this month. The Government of Canada recognizes that young families in particular have been impacted by the unpredictable expenses of the COVID-19 pandemic. This money will help pay for things such as short-term child care arrangements, healthy food, clothes, and activities they can do at home as a family. Families could receive up to $1,200 in support per child under the age of six in 2021. This will benefit about 1.6 million Canadian families and about 2.1 million children under the age of six. In 2021, families that are entitled to receive the CCB with a net income of $120,000 or less, will receive $300 per payment for each child under the age of six."

Excerpt: "The Province is making major investments in 2021/22 to improve sustainability of the child care system, create child care spaces and give parents and caregivers more child care options to meet their needs. These investments include: $2.4 million in ongoing operating grants for 2,992 licensed nursery school spaces as part of the transition to a fair and equitable single funding model for all nursery school programs. As part of the new funding model, 96 nursery school programs (1,674 spaces) will receive an increase to their annual grant amount; $1.5 million in operating grant funding for 541 licensed spaces including 149 licensed spaces from capital projects which are targeted to open in 2021/22 for a total of over 2,600 new spaces by the way of capital projects receiving funding annually since 2016/17; and $95 thousand in operating support for 50 new home-based licensed child care spaces in 2021/22. To date, 225 spaces will have been opened over four years."

Excerpt: "Today, the government announced the creation of an online portal called Parent Central to help parents or caregivers find and access licensed child care, information, programming or services for children from the ages of zero to six. "Our government remains committed to supporting families with necessary access to quality child care in their communities," Education Minister Dustin Duncan said. "This new website will help families find these services nearest to where they work or live.""

Excerpt: "Budget 2021 will: More than double the number of children who can get care for $10 a day or less through an expansion of the Universal Child Care Prototype Program. This investment will add 75 more child care centres to the program, increasing the number of spaces by approximately 3,750; Help more families access child care on school grounds by expanding the Seamless Day pilot program from four school districts to 24; Support approximately 11,000 ECEs in licensed child care centres, and encourage better recruitment and retention in the sector by doubling the ECE wage enhancement to $4 an hour..."

Excerpt: "There is agreement, across the political spectrum, that early learning and child care is the national economic policy we need now.

This is social infrastructure that will drive jobs and growth. This is feminist economic policy. This is smart economic policy. That is why this budget commits up to $30 billion over five years, reaching $8.3 billion every year, permanently, to build a high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and child care system across Canada.

This is not an effort that will deliver instant gratification. We are building something that, of necessity, must be constructed collaboratively, and for the long-term.

But I have confidence in us. I have confidence that we are a country that believes in investing in our future; in our children; and in our young parents. Here is our goal : Five years from now, parents across the country should have access to high quality early learning and child care, for an average of $10 a day.

I make this promise to Canadians today, speaking as your Finance Minister and as a working mother: We will get it done.

In making this historic commitment, I want to thank the visionary leaders of Quebec, particularly Quebec's feminists, who have shown the rest of Canada the way forward.

This plan will, of course, also provide additional resources to Quebec, which might well use them to further support an early learning and child care system that is already the envy of the rest of Canada, and indeed, much of the world."

Excerpt: "The review was commissioned by the province last year to assess Manitoba’s existing ELCC funding model and to support its modernization, in part by making it equitable across the system. The minister noted the Early Learning and Child Care Transformation report from KPMG is only one piece of information that will be used to develop a better system for Manitoba. Bill 47, the newly proposed ELCC legislation, would lay the foundation for a broader transformation, she added."

Excerpt: "An increase of $2 million, including an increase of $1.1. million for community-based organizations, in this Budget brings child care funding up to $75.5 million and will create an additional 176 new licensed home-based spaces and 51 new licensed centre spaces as part of the province’s four-year commitment to provide 750 new licensed child care spaces."

Excerpt: "Child care and education: $2.1 million increase for the now fully implemented pre-primary program available across the province, for a total of $53.4 million this year; $15 million increase to continue implementing the recommendations from the Commission on Inclusive Education to create a more inclusive education system for all students, bringing the total investment to $60 million; $9.5 million to maintain the enhanced cleaning recommendations from Public Health to support COVID-19 safe schools; $8 million to complete previous initiatives that support the safe reopening of schools and online learning due to COVID-19 during this school year."