Policy Monitor

The provincial government has released a three-year, $38-million action plan, Putting Children First, that will integrate early childhood services into the school system.

The Manitoba Centre for Health Policy has released a new report on the Early Development Instrument results in Manitoba. The report focusses on: socioeconomic adversity and children’s vulnerability at age five; biological vulnerability at birth and children’s vulnerability at age five; and children’s vulnerability at age five in three at–risk subgroups of children.

The province will consult Nova Scotians on a new early years strategy. As part of the initiative, the government released a discussion paper and has appointed a nine-member advisory council.

The Department of Education, along with the departments of Child, Youth and Family Services and Health and Community Services launched The Power of Play, "a multi-media promotional campaign designed to highlight and encourage play-based learning."

Excerpt: "Amendments have been proposed to the unproclaimed Early Learning and Childcare Act to establish a single piece of legislation called the Early Childhood Services Act. The new act would combine all early childhood programs and services such as preschool autism intervention, prenatal support, early learning and childcare, and early intervention.... Changes to the section of the act detailing curriculum frameworks are proposed so that licensed childcare facilities use only one of the two frameworks provided by the department."

Excerpt: "The allocation is based on the 2012-13 provincial budget which provided $2 million to develop 500 new child care spaces across Saskatchewan, and an additional $4 million to cover the capital costs of those new spaces."

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador "has entered into a partnership with the Margaret & Wallace McCain Family Foundation and the Jimmy Pratt Foundation to study innovative ways in which to integrate early childhood learning programs in Newfoundland and Labrador with a view to enabling the smoothest possible transition to school."

Budget 2012 includes new funds for child care for 2012-13, "doubling its investment by 2021-22 to approximately $56 million per year under a new 10-Year Child Care Strategy."

The Department of Child, Youth and Family Services announced "$2 million for the second year of the Family Child Care Initiative.... This two-year pilot project is making great strides in the development of regulated child care spaces throughout the province with an emphasis on spaces for infants up to 24 months of age."

The Government of Manitoba announces "new funding to child-care centres for 900 spaces, new capital and operational funding for child-care centres and homes, and improved subsidies for those most in need, Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard announced today…. Now in its fourth year, Family Choices, Manitoba’s five-year early learning and child-care initiative, is providing new funding for 6,500 quality child-care spaces by the end of 2013."

The Abecedarian model of early learning and child care has been introduced in the Lord Selkirk Park housing development. The model "will include a curriculum that promotes literacy and language development, in addition to a family resource centre."

Excerpt: "To include s. 2.1 under Elementary School Classes – Requirements Respecting Size. This section provides class size provisions for full-day junior kindergarten and kindergarten, clearly identifying an average class size unit of 26 pupils."