News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "Public Sector Accounting Standards require the government reporting entity to consolidate its total budget on a lineby-line basis using the same accounting principles and presentation as it uses to report its actual financial results. This document provides the consolidated budget for the Government of Nunavut reporting entity."

Excerpt: "Challenges related to training, recruitment and retention of qualified ELCC staff is seen across Nunavut. Very few ELCC educators have any type of formal early childhood educators (ECE) training which reduces the desire to work within the field. Many centres hire staff who are willing to work for low wages, but due to lack of training and competitive wages, many chose to leave the field within a short time. This creates a revolving door of ELCC educators which decreases the ability to keep centres open to full capacity and provide high quality childcare. Competitive wages are needed to recruit and retain interested people to work within the ELCC sector. Enhanced training and understanding of children’s needs, programming and day to day operations of a high-quality childcare system is also highly needed. Providing specialized training to support the growth of understanding and services provided to children and competitive wages is key to the growth and stability of ELCC in Nunavut."

Excerpt: "Nunavut agrees to use funds provided by Canada under this Agreement to support the expansion of regulated child care, and prioritize not-for-profit (including publically delivered) early learning and child care programs and services, for children under the age of 6, where: regulated programs and services are defined as those that meet standards that are established and/or monitored by provincial/territorial governments and Indigenous governments and authorities; not-for-profit providers and operations, which includes publically delivered operations, are defined as those that provide child care services to a community for a purpose other than generating a profit, typically improving family and/or child well being and/or development. Providers may generate a profit, but the surplus earnings, or other resources, are directed towards improving child care services rather than distributed for the personal benefit of owners, members, investors or to enhance asset growth. Early learning and child care programs and services are defined as those supporting direct care and early learning for children in settings including, but not limited to, regulated child care centres, regulated family child care homes, early learning centres, preschools and nursery schools."

Excerpt: "As a result of today’s announcement, families in Nunavut with preschool-aged children at licensed child care centres and licensed home day cares will be able to access child care for $10-a-day as of December 1, 2022. This milestone was achieved a full 15 months ahead of Nunavut’s Action Plan schedule, and more than three years ahead of the March 2026 federal goal for Canada-wide implementation. With $10-a-day child care, families in the territory could save up to $55 per day for each child in care, when compared to current rates. This will provide tangible benefits to families in the territory experiencing a rise in the cost of living."

Excerpt: "Nunavut is the first jurisdiction to achieve $10-a-day fees for licensed child care centres under the Canada-wide early learning and child care system. As of December 1, 2022, families in Nunavut with children under age 6 at licensed child care centres and licensed home day cares have access to child care for $10-a-day. Nunavut joins the Yukon and Quebec in providing families with regulated child care for $10-a-day or less. This milestone was achieved a full 15 months ahead of the schedule set out in Nunavut’s Action Plan, and more than three years ahead of the March 2026 federal goal for Canada-wide implementation. With $10-a-day child care, families in Nunavut could save up to $55 per day for each child in care, when compared to previous rates.Nunavut continues to provide a recruitment and retention fund to all licensed child care centres, which supports wage enhancements for early learning and child care educators in approximately 283 current workforce positions."

Excerpt: "2023-24 will be the third year of a three-year commitment to improve the student-educator ratio in our schools. This budget provides the Department of Education $3.7 million to continue the next phase of hiring new educators, student support assistants, school community counsellors, and other education support workers to help parents and families prepare the next generation of Nunavummiut to succeed."

Excerpt: "In support of the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework, the Government of Canada is committing up to $1.7 billion over 10 years to strengthen early learning and child care programs and services for Indigenous children and families starting in 2018–19. This is part of the commitment of $7.5 billion over 11 years the Government has made to support and create more high-quality, affordable child care across the country in Budget 2016."

The Government has now concluded the first phase of consultation on a proposed framework for legislation on First Nations elementary and secondary education. As the consultation process moves forward, the Government has released a Blueprint for Legislation which sets out the Government of Canada’s proposed approach to a First Nation Education Act and has been informed by the work of the National Panel on First Nation Elementary and Secondary Education, and recent consultations undertaken between December 2012 and May 2013.

In Budget 2010 the Government committed to work with First Nations to develop options, including new legislation, to improve the governance framework and clarify accountability for First Nations elementary and secondary education. In 2011, the Government and the Assembly of First Nations launched a National Panel, which made a number of recommendations for reforming First Nations education in its February 2012 report. In response to the Panel’s report, the Government is working with partners to introduce a First Nation Education Act and have it in place for September 2014. The purpose of this legislation is to establish the structures and standards to support strong and accountable education systems on reserve. This will set the stage for more positive education outcomes for First Nations children and youth. The Government will also work to explore mechanisms to ensure stable, predictable and sustainable funding for First Nations elementary and secondary education.

The Auditor General of Ontario's 2012 Annual Report included a chapter on the Education of Aboriginal Students.

The Aboriginal Head Start Association of BC released Stepping Stones to School: AHS to Kindergarten Transition Toolkit, "an educational resource for all Early Childhood programs that include Aboriginal children... [that includes] a collection of tools and suggestions from AHS programs that help create a successful transition into school for Aboriginal children and their families."

Statistics Canada predicts that the Aboriginal identity population in Canada could be between 1.7 million and 2.2 million by 2031 "representing between 4.0% and 5.3% of the total population. The average annual growth rate of the Aboriginal identity population as a whole during this period would be between 1.1% and 2.2%, compared with 1.0% for the non-Aboriginal population. In 2006, an estimated 1.3 million people reported an Aboriginal identity. These populations accounted for 3.9% of the Canadian population. Among them, 785,000 were North American Indians, 404,000 were Métis and 53,000 were Inuit..."