News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "The 2025-26 Budget delivers increased opportunities and support for kindergarten to Grade 12 students, parents and teachers across Saskatchewan. It also funds the new teacher collective bargaining agreement while addressing growing student enrolment. 2025-26 Budget highlights: Over the last two years, the Government of Saskatchewan has invested more than $5 billion in kindergarten to Grade 12 education; For the upcoming fiscal year, the Ministry of Education will receive $3.5 billion, an increase of $183 million, or 5.5 per cent, over the previous year; $130 million to fund the new teacher collective agreement and address the pressures of growing student enrollment and the challenges facing today’s classrooms; Increase of $186 million, or 8.4 per cent, in school operating funding (total: $2.4 billion); $2 million for kindergarten to Grade 3 literacy; $413.3 million for early learning and child care. Delivering for families includes access to safe, reliable and affordable child care. The Government of Saskatchewan remains committed to adding more regulated home-based and centre-based child care spaces across Saskatchewan."

Excerpt: "Albertans deserve world-class education for their families now and in the future. Budget 2025 provides an operating expense budget of $9.9 billion in 2025-26, a 4.5% increase from the 2024-25 third quarter forecast; $54 million in 2025-26, along with $348 million more over the following 2 years will support additional enrolment growth; An increase of $55 million in 2025-26, and another $94 million in each of the following 2 years, to adjust the funding formula for school authorities to provide increased sustainable funding for growth within the funding model; Almost $1.1 billion in total over the next 3 years to address growth and hire more than 4,000 new teachers and classroom support staff; More than $1.6 billion in 2025-26 will support students with specialized learning needs or groups of students who need additional help; An investment of $55 million in 2025-26, a 20% increase from last year, to allow school authorities to add staff and supports to complex classrooms so students receive the focus and attention they need; $389 million over 3 years will provide increases to funding rates to cover the rising costs of maintaining educational facilities, unavoidable expenses like insurance and utilities, and providing programs and services to students; $2.6 billion over 3 years for educational (K-12) infrastructure, an increase of $505 million or 23.9% from Budget 2024. This funding will support the construction of more than 200,000 new and modernized student spaces over the next 7 years (almost 90,000 within the next 4 years)."

Excerpt: "Budget 2025 provides $370 million over three years to help give children and youth the supportive and inclusive learning environment they need. This includes hiring more teachers and supporting the growing number of children with special needs with funding for special education teachers, teacher psychologists and counsellors through the Classroom Enhancement Fund. Budget 2025 also provides $17 million for First Nations reciprocal tuition for students attending First Nations schools.

Capital investments of $4.6 billion over three years will go toward building, renovating and seismically upgrading schools. Major projects include $392 million in prefabricated school projects that will create 6,485 new seats across 16 school districts; $203 million for the new 1,900-seat Smith Secondary school in Langley; and $151 million for the new 630-seat Olympic Village elementary school in Vancouver."

Excerpt: "More than $62 million is being invested to create more than 750 new licensed child care spaces throughout B.C. through the accelerated space-creation programs. Once operational, these spaces will be eligible for the government’s fee reduction program, ensuring affordability for families. "As Langford continues to grow, ensuring affordable and high-quality child care spaces for families in our community remains a top priority,” said Scott Goodmanson, mayor of Langford. “We are grateful for the support from both the provincial and federal governments in addressing this need and helping us move forward. Partnerships like these are essential for achieving our shared goals.” Additionally, between March 1 and April 1, 2025, families will benefit from 770 new $10-a-day spaces at 22 child care centres throughout B.C., including in Surrey, Parksville and Williams Lake."

Excerpt: "The Sectoral Table on the Care Economy builds on the Government of Canada’s historic investments to strengthen social infrastructure. These investments have included transformative improvements in early learning and child care, improved tax support for caregivers through the Canada caregiver credit, and improved access to long-term care and other continuing care services through the Aging with Dignity agreements signed with each province and territory."

Excerpt: "Work is underway to increase child care for health care professionals, with one child care centre in St. John’s dedicated to providing child care for health care professionals. In addition, there are child care centres in St. John’s, Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Wabush that prioritize spaces for health care workers based on need. We have introduced medical benefits to support the professionalization of the early learning workforce. There are also thousands of parents using the Early Learning Gateway, and we are continuously adding features such as a substitute list for early childhood educators that is available to all regulated child care services. We are making great progress increasing affordable early learning and child care spaces. We will continue this work so that all children and families are able to access the early learning and child care services they need while contributing to an inclusive and thriving province."

Excerpt: "The Department of Education’s Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) division is accepting funding proposals aimed at increasing licensed child care spaces across the territory. Over $6 million in federal funding is available to support projects that strengthen access to quality early learning child care for children aged 0-6. This program is already making a significant impact in Nunavut. The newly-expanded Iqaluit Inuktitut daycare Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik in Apex has created 16 additional spaces for children with the support of this program. Additionally, funding has been provided to support the active renovation of the highly-anticipated new licensed child care centre for 20 children in Grise Fiord. The department is committed to creating 238 new licensed child care spaces by March 2026. Since signing the Canada-wide ELCC agreement, Nunavut has created 181 new licensed child care spaces, resulting in a total gain of 104, as some existing spaces are no longer available. Even more spaces are on the way as we continue to expand access for families."

Excerpt: "Through the National School Food Program, the Government of Canada will invest approximately $7.4 million over the next three years for things like upgrading school food kitchen facilities, purchasing food and offering more nutritious meals to students. These enhancements are particularly significant for remote communities in the Yukon and will provide children most affected by food insecurity with access to more consistent and nutritious meals at school."

Excerpt: "The National School Food Program is a direct investment into the middle class—making life a little easier for working families. It is also a safety net for the kids who need this support the most. As part of this agreement, the Government of Canada will invest approximately $15.8 million over the next three years. This investment will mean that school food programs will be available in more schools, to more students."

Excerpt: "The National School Food Program is a direct investment into the middle class – helping teachers and making mornings a little easier for working families. It is also a safety net for the kids who need this support the most. As part of this agreement, the Government of Canada will invest approximately $42.2 million over the next three years. Alberta will work with school jurisdictions to maximize the impact of federal funding to feed more kids and enhance existing nutrition programs for Alberta’s students. This includes serving healthier meals, ensuring adequate staff for food preparation, and purchasing needed equipment and infrastructure to support program implementation."

Excerpt: "The federal government is investing $876.3 million over five years beginning in 2026-27 to extend that agreement and the Canada New-Brunswick Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. This will be used to subsidize more than 17,000 child-care spaces in the New Brunswick Early Learning Centre and New Brunswick Early Learning Home designation program, as well as spaces that have been allocated but are not yet open. Additionally, the Canada-New Brunswick Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Funding Agreement is being extended for one year."

Excerpt: "Through this agreement, the Government of Canada will provide approximately $65.2 million over the next three years in federal support for the government of Quebec’s school food programs. The agreement also recognizes Quebec’s jurisdiction in education. This federal investment will support and improve school food services in Quebec, while providing more students in Quebec with nutritious meals and snacks while at school, giving them the best possible opportunity to learn, grow and reach their full potential."