News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "The EYC Expansion Capital Grant provides financial assistance to create new licensed early learning and child care spaces, particularly for infant and/or toddler-aged children within new and existing facilities. This grant offers a maximum of $200,000 to facilitate new construction, renovations, and/or equipment purchases to help meet the urgent need for expanded spaces. The EYC Architectural Fee Reimbursement Grant offers funding for architectural fees to create new licensed early learning and child care spaces. This grant aims to alleviate financial barriers that hinder centres from expanding by reimbursing 80 per cent of the project's architecture fees to a maximum of $80,000."

Excerpt: "The Manitoba government has invested over $375,000 in capacity and programming improvement grants to support high-quality affordable child-care services in 34 facilities across the province, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Nello Altomare announced today."

Excerpt: "Island students are learning while outdoors and having fun at the same time thanks to more than 100 projects funded through new grants from the Department of Education and Early Years. The Outdoor Learning Grants are funding all sorts of outdoor activities, including day trips, conservation projects, outdoor classrooms and play spaces, weather stations, school gardens and more. The goal is to help kids learn important skills while providing meaningful outdoor learning opportunities that transcend traditional classroom settings. "We want every student to have the chance to explore nature and learn outside. With these grants, we want to help empower schools and teachers to create impactful outdoor learning experiences that inspire curiosity, foster environmental stewardship, and promote personal growth.""

Excerpt: "Budget 2024 supports working families by recognizing affordable and accessible child care as the backbone of a strong economy where everyone can participate. That’s why we are investing $15.9-million in new child-care spaces, as well increasing access to $10/day child care, and increasing funding support for child-care centres to increase salaries for early childhood educators."

Excerpt: "“Child care is expensive enough without fees adding up before families have secured child care,” said Mitzi Dean, Minister of State for Child Care. “Eliminating waitlist fees will mean that families no longer face having to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars simply to find a child care space. We’re supporting families with the cost of child care, and now that starts when families are looking for a spot.” Approximately 5% of providers, mostly in metropolitan areas, were charging families a fee to put their name on a waitlist. Because most families looking for child care reach out to a number of providers, this was a significant cost. Waitlist fees, most of which are non-refundable, ranged from $25 to $200 or more."

Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced a new National School Food Program. With an investment of $1 billion over five years, the Program, included in Budget 2024, will launch with a target of providing meals to 400,000 more kids every year, beyond those served by existing school food programs. For moms and dads, it will mean the peace of mind that your kids are taken care of and do not go hungry. For kids, it will mean healthy meals – helping them learn, grow, and reach their full potential. This is a generational investment in the future of our kids, and we’re going to work with provinces and territories and Indigenous partners to ensure every child has the food they need. The Program will be a safety net for the kids who need this support the most. The lack of access to food disproportionately impacts children from lower-income families and from racialized and Indigenous communities. With this program, we’re getting healthy food on the plates of growing kids."

Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced measures from the upcoming Budget 2024 to build more affordable child care spaces – saving more families thousands of dollars and helping more parents return to their careers. These measures include: Launching a new Child Care Expansion Loan Program. With $1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable grants, public and not-for-profit child care providers will be able to build new spaces and renovate their existing child care centres. This means more resources for child care providers and more affordable child care options for families; Offering student loan forgiveness for rural and remote early childhood educators. This will encourage educators to work in smaller communities and help families get the child care they need. With a $48 million investment over four years, student loan forgiveness will increase the longer an educator works in a rural or remote area, attracting and retaining the talent, similar to the programs we’re offering rural doctors and nurses; Increasing training for early childhood educators. We’re investing $10 million over two years to train more early childhood educators, building up the talent needed for the expansion of affordable, high-quality child care."

Excerpt: "More families in British Columbia will save thousands of dollars every year as more than 930 child care spaces move into the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program in March and April. This brings the total number of $10-a-day spaces in B.C. to more than 15,000. “Affordable, $10-a-day child care that’ll help families save thousands of dollars, help parents balance work with family and help kids get the best start to life. That’s what today’s announcement with B.C. is all about,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “Together, we’re making sure families across the province get the quality child care they need without worrying about the cost.”"

Excerpt: "The government is committed to building modern schools by investing $23 billion, including approximately $16 billion in capital grants over 10 years, to build, expand and renew schools and child care spaces across Ontario. Since 2018, the government has supported nearly 300 school or child care-related projects, of which more than 100 are actively under construction. This includes $1.4 billion for the current school year to support the repair and renewal needs of schools."

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: "The government will increase funding through the Canada-New Brunswick Canada-Wide Child Care Agreement by $7.4 million, bringing the total investment to $150.7 million in 2024-25. This investment aims to improve access to affordable, high-quality designated child-care spaces. Other investments include: $4.4 million to support children with autism spectrum disorder, providing the right supports at the right time and setting up children for success; $18.6 million to address challenges resulting from enrolment growth, as well as an additional $24.3 million to address rising operating costs such as energy, transportation and other services; $1.1 million to address costs associated with opening new schools in Fredericton and Moncton this September; $2.5 million to support language learning and ease the transition for immigrant students entering the New Brunswick education system; $7.4 million to provide services to help students attend school and address their diverse needs; $7.8 million to provide support to reverse the effects of instruction time lost during the pandemic; $4.1 million to begin implementing longer-term measures, such as teacher recruitment and retention, enhanced virtual learning and leadership development among school leaders."

Excerpt: "The 2024-25 Budget provides $408.7 million for early learning and child care, which will support Saskatchewan families. This includes an increase of $21.1 million for the Federal-Provincial Child Care Agreements. This funding continues to support child care at $10 a day for children under six, making Saskatchewan one of the most affordable places in Canada to live and raise a family. The Government of Saskatchewan is also committed to adding more regulated home-based and centre-based child care spaces in the province, creating more jobs for our growing province."