Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "Overall, the most common challenges experienced while on maternity or parental leave are regarding financial hardships, restrictions in the qualification criteria for those self-employed or on contract, and difficulties finding childcare. When asked about their challenges while being in maternity or parental leave, the most common challenges mentioned are related to finances, especially among those with single income families, twins, and multiple births; difficulties finding suitable and affordable childcare; and problems qualifying for EI benefits while being self-employed or working on contract."

Excerpt: "$1.5 million to help offset the costs of the junior kindergarten program as it is rolled out in all NWT communities for four-year old children and a commitment to spend an additional $2.7 million for schools before the end of the 18th Legislative Assembly to ensure that this critical program can be implemented in all communities."

Excerpt: "Province Investing in 3,400 New Child Care Spaces and Launching Public Consultations."

Excerpt: "Each new child-care centre will receive up to $500,000 in operating funding in the first year, with the opportunity to receive two more years of funding. The locations of new child-care centres, targeted to where demand is greatest, will be announced early in 2017."

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Excerpt: "Ontario is creating 88 new licensed child care spaces in the Waterloo Region, increasing the availability of safe, high-quality, child care for local families. The five new child care rooms for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers will be located in the new St. Boniface Catholic School, which is scheduled to open in 2019. The spaces will give more families the opportunity to transition from child care into full-day kindergarten at the same location."

Excerpt: "Premier Kathleen Wynne visited the onsite child care centre at Glynn A. Green Public School in Fonthill, where the government supported a retrofit of existing rooms to help create more than 30 new licensed child care spaces for toddlers and pre-schoolers."

Excerpt: "Within the next five years, Ontario will help to create another 100,000 new, licensed child care spaces so that more families in Toronto can find quality, affordable care."

Excerpt: "Every child deserves to have the best start in life. Over the past three years, the government has helped to create 56,000 new licensed child care spaces. Within the next five years, it will help to create another 100,000 spaces, so that working families can find quality, affordable care. Your government will also make it easier for parents to find and use the services their children need, whether they are before-and-after-school programs, drop-in centres or more licensed child care spaces."

Excerpt: "Ontario is investing more than $23 million to build 35 new licensed child care rooms across the province, delivering on its commitment to build safe, high-quality, licensed child care spaces for Ontario families."

The plans, entitled Everyone at Their Best for the anglophone sector and Donnons à nos enfants une longueur d’avance for the francophone sector, identify objectives for the early learning and education system and establish clear expectations for standards and performance.

Excerpt: "Budget 2016 proposes to introduce a teacher and early childhood educator school supply tax credit for 2016 and subsequent taxation years. This measure will allow an employee who is an eligible educator to claim a 15% refundable tax credit based on an amount of up to $1,000 of purchases of eligible teaching supplies by the employee in a taxation year."