Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "$15 Minimum Wage and Equal Pay for Part-Time and Full-Time Workers Part of Plan to Help People Get Ahead in a Changing Economy."

Excerpt: "Ontario is supporting mothers and babies with new and expanded health care services, including more midwives, enhanced newborn screening and increased supports for vulnerable babies."

Excerpt: "The building fund provides capital funding support to projects that will build a new non-profit child-care centre or renovate an existing centre for the purposes of adding child care spaces. The 2017-18 budget includes up to $2.8 million. Grant recipients receive up to 40 per cent of capital costs to a maximum of $600,000 for projects in community-owned or leased buildings."

Excerpt: "The Government of Canada will provide $189 million in funding over 10 years to the Government of Nunavut for community-based programs covering four broad areas: healthy children, families and communities; healthy living; mental wellness; and home and community care."

Excerpt: "Budget 2017 also makes significant investments in the Department of Families, increasing its budget by more than $105 million, a 5.4 per cent increase over last year."

Excerpt: "Finding quality and affordable child care can be a challenge for families in some communities due to long waitlists for subsidies and spaces. The government is helping 100,000 more children access affordable, quality licensed child care to give them the best start in life and support families across Ontario. As a first step, the Province invested an additional $65.5 million to help create 3,400 licensed child care spaces in fall 2016."

Excerpt: "In 2017-18, the department will introduce play-based pre-primary programming in a number of schools across Nova Scotia. This program will be available to 4 year olds the year before they enter school and will provide them with access to high-quality early learning programs based on Nova Scotia's first ever Early Learning Curriculum Framework."

Excerpt: "The government is committed to addressing these challenges by increasing access to licensed child care and by making it more affordable for families: 24,000 more children up to four years old will have access to child care in 2017-18. This is part of the province's plan to help 100,000 kids access child care over five years, as announced in the 2016 Ontario Speech from the Throne; Parents will receive more financial support to increase affordability, including subsidies for approximately 60 per cent of new child care spaces."

Excerpt: "An additional $5.4 million dedicated to the education of Island children and youth. As a result, the total Budget of the Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture will be $256 million - an all-time high."

Excerpt: "The provincial government is investing $1 million to support the Early Learning and Child Care Trust Fund."

Excerpt: "Ontario is also investing in smaller class sizes for students in full-day kindergarten (FDK) and Grades 4-8. FDK classes, which are supported by a teacher and an early childhood educator, will now be capped at 30 students next school year, falling to 29 students in 2018-19, and average no more than 26 students per class within each school board. Support will also be provided to ensure that for students in grades 4-8, all school boards have average class sizes of 24.5 or fewer students."

$2 million to be added to the base amount of $12.5 million to broaden the eligibility for the Child Care Subsidy Program, which will reduce costs for low to middle income families; $1.3 million increase to the Early Learning and Child Care Supplement; Over $13 million annually for full-day Kindergarten across the province.