Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "Nova Scotia will develop a new provincial organization that will manage all regulated child care in the province. A provincial executive director, regional directors and centre based managers/pedagogical leaders will lead the organization and be responsible for meeting mandated objectives as determined by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (EECD). The Province will provide the organization with an annual funding agreement to support all regulated child care centres and licensed family home child care agencies that fall under their mandate. Current regulated child care centres will transition from individual contracts with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to a new governance and infrastructure model on April 1, 2022. The organization will oversee contracts for or manage the overall delivery of provincial child care including managing child care spaces and need in community, ECE compensation and wages/benefits (labour relations), daily parent fees, and centre finances."

Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, virtually joined the Premier of Nunavut, P.J. Akeeagok, today to announce an agreement that will support an average of $10 a day licensed child care in the territory by March 2024, two years ahead of the federal target. By the end of 2022, parent fees for licensed child care will be reduced by 50 per cent on average, saving families hundreds of dollars per month. This would mean a family in Iqaluit would save an estimated total of up to $14,000 per year on child care fees. This will apply to parents with children up to six years old in licensed child care spaces. Through the agreement, the governments of Canada and Nunavut will work together to improve access to quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services. This includes creating 238 new licensed early learning and child care spaces by the end of March 2026, with federal funding of $66 million over five years."

Excerpt: "People looking to build careers in child care will have more educational opportunities with the addition of 147 early childhood educator (ECE) seats at eight public post-secondary institutions throughout the province."

Excerpt: "In addition to reduced fees, there will be 1,500 new not-for-profit child-care spaces beginning this fall, part of the plan for 9,500 new early learning and child-care spaces by March 31, 2026. The new spaces will be made available in more communities across Nova Scotia, with the goal of equitable access to affordable, accessible child care everywhere in the province. Communities with limited care options will soon have access to licensed child care for infants and toddlers, along with before and after school programs."

Excerpt: "In addition to the requirement for EYCs to meet specific criteria related to workforce/quality, including the requirement for all staff to have a level of certification and adhering to a uniform wage grid and benefits, PEI has taken further steps to support its ECE workforce. Funding provided under the Early Learning and Child Care Bilateral Agreement (2017) resulted in education and training grants being provided to 170 early childhood educators for a total of $366,473 spent since 2017."

Excerpt: "In order to strengthen the current system, the Government of Quebec announced, as part of its fiscal year 2021 to 2022 budget, investments of $144.2 million over 5 years to: increase the number of qualified early childhood educators; accelerate the development of child care spaces through measures such as reviewing and optimizing the process related to the development of centres de la petite enfance (CPEs), authorizing the use of temporary facilities, and providing additional incentives for home child care providers; improve the offer of child care services and make it more flexible by promoting the provision of atypical child care and the offer of activities by community drop-in centres."

Excerpt: "Yukon commits to using federal funding to increase the net number of regulated child care spaces for children under age 6 by 110 spaces, which is the number of new spaces required to achieve a coverage rate of 59% by fiscal year 2025 to 2026. In creating these 110 child care spaces, Yukon commits that: federal funding will be exclusively used to support creation of regulated spaces in not-for-profit and public child care providers/operators, as well as family-based child care; federal funding will be exclusively used to support licensed child care delivery by licensed providers."

Excerpt: "Manitoba commits to use federal funds to demonstrate meaningful progress on improving quality, including: developing and implementing evidence based quality frameworks, standards, and tools for early learning and child care; developing a wage grid for Early Childhood Educators and committing to its implementation; increasing the percentage of child care workers providing regulated child care in the province who fully meet Manitoba’s certification requirements by 15 percentage points by fiscal year 2025 to 2026."

Excerpt: "In fiscal year 2022 to 2023, Saskatchewan will work to develop a wage grid. Saskatchewan’s renewed funding model will recognize this wage grid and compensation of ECEs as an essential feature of child care funding. The wage grid developed in fiscal year 2022 to 2023 will serve as an anchor for determining appropriate compensation according to certification level. Saskatchewan will work towards implementing the wage grid as part of the renewed funding model."

Excerpt: "BC and Canada agree on the goal of $10 per day child care, and will work together towards achieving this goal for ages children aged 0 to 5 within 5 years. The ability to afford child care remains a significant barrier for families in BC. The fiscal year 2020 to 2021 average fees for group/centre-based care varies from $1,000 per month per child for infant care (after the $350 per month CCFRI fee reduction) to $470 per month per child for before/after school careFootnote 6. The introduction of CCFRI in 2018 rolled back child care fees; however, as fees continue to rise each year due to inflation, increased wages, etc., fees for some care types have returned to pre-CCFRI levels."

Excerpt: "To realize these objectives, I ask that you achieve results for Canadians by delivering the following commitments. Supported by the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, continue advancing the creation and sustainability of a Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system, including: Concluding negotiations with remaining provinces and territories and implementing agreements: Reducing fees for regulated child care by 50 per cent on average by the end of 2022 everywhere outside of Quebec, reducing regulated child care fees to $10 a day on average by the end of fiscal year 2025-2026 everywhere outside of Quebec, and building 250,000 new high-quality child care spaces and hiring 40,000 more early childhood educators by the end of fiscal year 2025-2026; Introducing federal child care legislation to strengthen and protect a high-quality Canada-wide child care system; Establishing a National Advisory Council on Early Learning and Child Care; Continuing to advance work with provinces and territories to reduce fees for families for before and after school care; and Ensuring the Federal Secretariat on Early Learning and Child Care is fully resourced and operational by early 2023."

Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Premier of the Northwest Territories, Caroline Cochrane, today announced an agreement that will support an average of $10 a day child care in the territory, significantly reducing the price of child care for families. Through today’s agreement and previous agreements, the governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories will work together to improve access to quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services. This includes creating 300 new licensed early learning and child care spaces by the end of March 2026. All of these spaces will be provided exclusively by not-for-profit providers, including community and non-profit organizations as well as family day home providers. With federal funding of over $51 million over the next five years, the Northwest Territories will also see a 50 per cent reduction in average parent fees for children under the age of six in licensed child care by the end of 2022."