News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "Over the course of the three-year plan, New Brunswick’s Action Plan 2023–2024 to 2025–2026 outlines spending of more than $426 million in five areas: Affordability - More than $295 million towards the goal of achieving regulated child care fees of $10-a-day average by March 31, 2026. The Government of New Brunswick has already reduced child care fees by an average of 50% as of December 2022 saving families an average of $3,600 per year, per child. Access - More than $20 million towards the creation of 3,400 new regulated child care spots by March 2026. In New Brunswick, measures to support the creation of 3,400 new spots have been announced, including in francophone and rural communities. Quality - More than $128.5 million toward ongoing support for the early childhood educator (ECE) wage grid introduced in November 2022, and offering training to support educators obtaining their Level 1 – ECE Certificate. Inclusion - More than $30 million to develop and implement a comprehensive inclusion framework for both anglophone and francophone sectors; as well as continuing to support inclusion measures for diverse and vulnerable communities, including children with additional needs; Approximately $12.4 million through the Government of Canada’s Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund to increase the physical accessibility of ELCC spaces and support greater inclusion for underserved communities including: families in rural and remote communities, minority language communities, newcomer families, low-income families, extended hour service providers and Indigenous communities; With more than $2.7 million, the Government of Canada and New Brunswick are collaborating with Indigenous communities and organizations to identify areas of focus and establish a plan for ELCC services for Indigenous children that is supported by an Indigenous-led, strength-based coordination process. Reporting and Administration - Over $16 million to support the implementation and administration of the Canada–New Brunswick Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, including building targeted capacity and additional resources within the Government of New Brunswick to support the implementation of initiatives, and enhanced data collection and reporting."

Excerpt: "As of Sept. 1, 2024 francophone families, child care providers and child care professionals will have expanded access through the francophone CCRR centre to services in French, which will be offered online or in person in Vancouver. This will further remove barriers for families in accessing quality, affordable and inclusive child care, and for child care providers and child care professionals in accessing resources in French. La Fédération des parents francophones de Colombie-Britannique will also be part of the provincial network of CCRR centres and assist all local CCRR service providers in the province in providing francophone-specific services as required."

Excerpt: "The Steps to Success program will be offered again this fall, providing financial aid and experience to help Islanders pursue a rewarding career as an early childhood educator. This group-based training initiative is funded by the Department of Workforce, Advanced Learning and Population through the Canada-PEI labour market agreements and creates a pathway for participants to: Work full time at a PEI licensed child care centre; Receive post-secondary early childhood education courses at Holland College; A training stipend (when applicable); Travel allowance (when applicable); Child care allowances (when applicable). Over the past 4 years, this program has provided training to over 100 participants, with a combined investment of $1.8 million. Participants will also be enrolled in three introductory Early Childhood Education courses through Holland College, with all fees and course materials covered by the project."

Excerpt: "Last fall, several licensed child-care facilities in Calgary faced a devastating E. coli outbreak, the largest in the province’s history. In response, Alberta’s government established the Food Safety and Licensed Facility-Based Child Care Review Panel (review) to conduct a thorough review of the circumstances surrounding the event and recommend ways to prevent this from happening again. The panel's seven-month review resulted in a final report that includes 12 primary recommendations and 27 sub-recommendations. The recommendations centre around three main themes: fostering a culture of food safety that supports high-quality, safe and healthy learning environments for children; public policy, legislation and inspection systems for food safety; system alignment and integration."

Description: "The Government of Canada is committed to working with provincial, territorial, and Indigenous partners to create a Canada-wide system of high-quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child care (ELCC) that all families can access no matter where they live. To help inform continued progress, the Department of Employment and Social Development is seeking input on what the Canada-wide ELCC system and its commitment to provide child care for $10-a-day, on average, means to you. The purpose of this discussion guide is to provide you with a general update on the implementation of the Canada-wide ELCC system and to provide a framework to help us better understand your experiences with the system. Your views on the key challenges and successes to date are essential to support future and ongoing work. This guide is designed to be an open-ended tool that invites respondents to consider both universal and more targeted questions, as appropriate. This tool was designed with the understanding that all respondents will have different experiences with the Canada-wide ELCC system, and that their unique realities will shape their response. While significant progress has been made, more work needs to be done to ensure the Canada-wide ELCC system is able to deliver high-quality, affordable, accessible, flexible and inclusive ELCC for all families. Respondents are invited to respond to whichever questions most align with their priorities, challenges, and experiences."

Excerpt: "For the 2024–25 benefit year, families can receive up to $7,787 per child under the age of 6 and $6,570 per child aged 6 through 17. This means moms and dads could receive up to $350 more than last year. This represents an increase of 4.7% from the previous year. The Canada Child Benefit has been indexed to inflation using Consumer Price Index data as reported by Statistics Canada—a widely used measure of inflation. Indexing the Canada Child Benefit occurs every July, ensuring that the benefit protects families from inflation and provides certainty and predictability of support parents can count on."

Excerpt: "New annual reporting requirements will provide the public with additional insight into how much government funding is being invested in child care in B.C., as well as the outcomes achieved from this funding. Also starting Sept. 1, 2024, enhanced affordable child care benefit supports will be available to families when their child care is arranged or recommended by an Indigenous authority under Indigenous law. This means families will receive the same support with their child care costs, regardless of whether their child care is arranged or recommended by the Ministry of Children and Family Development, Indigenous Child and Family Service Agencies, or under Indigenous law. Families, child care providers and early childhood educators will continue to receive the same level of support from the current fee reductions, operational funding and wage-enhancement programs through the Early Learning and Child Care Act."

Excerpt: "The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) and the Northwest Territories Early Childhood Association (NWTECA) have agreed on terms of reference to guide their partnership to establish an early learning and child care system that provides quality programs and supports licensed family day homes and centre-based programs. The GNWT and the NWTECA hold regular meetings to discuss important matters affecting the sector. The goal of this agreement is to foster transparency between the GNWT, the NWTECA’s board, and its members to ensure that licensed program operators and early childhood educators fully understand changes to the sector and how they will be impacted."

Excerpt: "The Manitoba government has made amendments to the Child Care Regulation to increase the operating grants for all licensed and provincially funded early learning and child-care facilities, federal Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jenna Sudds and Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Nello Altomare announced today. The amendments brought into force a 2.75 per cent increase to the wage grid supplement provided to facilities, effective July 1, and a five percent increase to the base operating grants, retroactively effective April 1."

Excerpt: "The Ontario government is doubling investments to a historic $1.3 billion to support the building of new state-of-the-art schools, as well as school expansions and renovations across the province. This funding for infrastructure projects, the largest-ever one-year allocation through the Capital Priorities Program, will lead to the creation of more than 27,000 new student spaces and more than 1,700 child care spaces."

Excerpt: "Today, applications are being accepted for the new Working Opportunities Program. Funded through a $3.5 million provincial investment in Budget 2024, the Working Opportunities Program will enable individuals who are not eligible for the federally funded Skills Development Program to avail of similar financial supports for training. Working Opportunities enables non-EI eligible individuals with barriers to workforce participation and post-secondary education to retrain and upskill, creating more stable employment and improving their well-being. This program will also help address shortages in the workforce. The program will support people eligible to attend post-secondary schooling that will lead to employment, including funding for a living allowance, child care and costs of training. Participants will attend full-time post-secondary programs that are a minimum of 12 weeks and a maximum of three years in duration at a public or private training institution in Newfoundland and Labrador."

Excerpt: "The act will require regulatory bodies to reduce red tape and remove barriers in 29 professions and make it easier, more transparent and quicker for those qualified professionals to pursue and achieve credential recognition, no matter where they were trained. One major change is eliminating the catch-22 of unnecessary Canadian work experience requirements for experienced internationally trained professionals. The catch-22 was that a person needed work experience to work in Canada, but couldn’t work in Canada because of the lack of Canadian work experience. The professions include engineers, social workers, veterinarians, paramedics, early childhood educators, teachers, biologists, land surveyors, architects and more."