Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "Our greatest ambition has always been the same: to give every child the tools they need to reach their full potential. This is our vision for the Québec of tomorrow. I am announcing that we are continuing our efforts with additional investments of $819 million with a view to: supporting student success by giving them access to the tools they need, for example with the catch-up plan; promoting the attraction and retention of school staff; supporting partner organizations in education; and continuing maintenance of the school building inventory."

Excerpt: "Ontario’s Early Years and Child Care Annual Report 2023 describes the early years and child care system, key data and measures for child care and indicators under Ontario’s bilateral federal-provincial early learning and child care agreements with the federal government."

Excerpt: "Providing affordable child care: $42.5 million in continued funding for early learning and child care."

The Student and Family Affordability Fund will add an additional $20 million from the Province to help schools provide support directly to families within their school communities. Funding will be used to help pay for student necessities, such as school supplies, school fees and class trips, as well as additional costs associated with joining a school sports team or music program.

Excerpt: "Through this action plan, Canada’s investments support five key areas: Affordability - Over $25 million toward achieving an average of $10-a-day for child care fees. This investment has made licensed ELCC programming more affordable for all families, regardless of their income or location in the territory. The Government of the Northwest Territories had already reduced out-of-pocket child care fees by an average of 60% as of April 1, 2023, and will reach an average of $10-a-day per child by April 1, 2024, for all licensed ELCC spaces. Access - $770,000 toward preserving and expanding licensed spaces. This investment includes health and safety funding to support repairs and maintenance required during the licensing and inspection process, and start-up funding to purchase supplies, material, and other costs incurred when setting up a new licensed program. Inclusion - In addition to territorial investments, $135,000 dedicated to developing a renewed approach to inclusion. This investment aims to ensure all children experience safe and nurturing environments, including Indigenous children and children needing enhanced or individual supports to fully participate in early learning. Quality - More than $30 million toward initiatives that support the ELCC workforce. This investment will focus on providing professional learning and development, funding post-secondary institutions to offer ELCC education programs, and providing scholarships to part- and full-time post-secondary students enrolled in early childhood development programs. This investment will also help develop a wage grid, with an implementation target date in 2024–2025. Administration and reporting - Almost $5 million toward building targeted capacity and additional resources within the Government of the Northwest Territories to support licensed ELCC space creation, enhance access, and improve reporting capacity."

Excerpt: "Alberta child-care providers are a critical part of ensuring the province has a strong economy. Child-care providers have asked the government for changes to help address concerns on the timing of their payments. In response, Alberta’s government is fast-tracking $84 million in advance payments. Starting March 1, child-care providers will receive about 80 per cent of their monthly claim at the beginning of each month, in addition to the fees they collect from parents. This change to monthly claim advances will help achieve the government’s commitment to introducing a new payment approach, ensuring child-care providers receive grant payments sooner."

Excerpt: "Growing Childcare Supports and Spaces - $4.3M - To improve access to childcare for families, continue the implementation of $10/day childcare and provide supports for operators to create more childcare spaces, with a commitment of 30 percent of new spaces for infants. This brings the total investment in reducing fees to $12.3 million."

Excerpt: "Budget 2024 lays a stable foundation for Albertan families to grow and thrive; $1.5 billion for child-care services, an increase of 15.9%, to create more child-care spaces, lower fees for parents and support service providers; A new $30 million program to build small and mid-sized arenas, rinks, pools and sports fields for children and families - this is on top of $125 million over 3 years to support non-profit organizations to build and develop public use community facilities; $22 million over the next 3 years to index foster, kinship and other caregivers rates to inflation - foster caregivers haven’t seen increases to support rates since 2018."

Excerpt: "$28 million more for public schools to address growing enrolment, hire more teachers and address inflationary pressures; $42.5 million more this year in child-care funding to lower fees for families, create more spaces and enhance after school care, fully recoverable from the Canada-Nova Scotia Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement"

Excerpt: "Alberta’s government has already provided $20 million to school authorities for the school nutrition program. This one-time grant increases the pre-existing funding by 25 per cent, bringing the total funding to $25 million to run nutrition programs for the 2023-24 school year. The grant will automatically flow to public, separate, francophone and applicable public charter schools through regular funding channels."

Excerpt: "From public health, to child care and education, our government takes our responsibility to help and support parents in keeping kids safe and healthy very seriously. During the pandemic, thanks to measures like contract tracing, we kept kids in classrooms more than any other province did. We understood how important school is, not only for learning, but also for the social, mental and physical well-being of children. It wasn’t always easy, but was important to do the right thing for kids in B.C."

Excerpt: "Participants mentioned the need for the public school system to accommodate the increasing school-age population. The unique needs of new resident students, such as English and French as Additional Language students, were also acknowledged. At the same time, there was a recognition that the province has a robust education system on which to build. Participants also raised Early Learning and Child Care access as a concern. Limited access to Early Learning and Child Care prevents some parents from participating in the workforce. Early Learning and Child Care inaccessibility are felt more acutely by vulnerable segments of the population— women, lower-income families, and members of equity-deserving groups—creating additional barriers to social inclusion."