News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "The proposed new measures include: The Family Tax Cut, a federal tax credit that will allow a higher-income spouse to transfer up to $50,000 of taxable income to a spouse in a lower tax bracket; Increasing the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) for children under age six; Expanding the UCCB to children aged six through 17; Increasing the Child Care Expense Deduction dollar limits by $1,000, effective for the 2015 tax year."

Excerpt: "On May 2, 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the findings of the Federal Court concerning an employer's obligation to provide workplace accommodation for an employee's childcare needs in Canada (Attorney General) v. Johnstone, a case that has garnered significant media attention. As the first decision from an appellate-level court on this issue in more than a decade, this ruling serves as the most authoritative statement to date on a difficult issue that has generated a lot of uncertainty for workplace participants."

Excerpt: "This statement by the Infant Feeding Joint Working Group provides health professionals with evidence-informed principles and recommendations. Provinces, territories, and health organizations can use it as a basis for developing practical feeding guidelines for parents and caregivers in Canada."

Budget 2015-16 provides $4.9 million in funding for actions in support of improving health and well-being, including: $1.12 million to support the Early Childhood Development Action Plan and enhance community-based early intervention service delivery to improve the care of youngsters.

An action plan outlining the Government’s future priorities for programs and funding.

Minister Lafferty tabled a Junior Kindergarten Information Kit that provides background on Junior Kindergarten, the Government of the Northwest Territories’ (GNWT) financial investment in the education system, dedicated funding for Inclusive Schooling and the NWT’s Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR). The information kit also looked at the projected impact of implementing Junior Kindergarten on the two Yellowknife school boards, Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) and Yellowknife Education District No. 1.

Excerpt: "New data released today by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) confirms that actions the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) is undertaking to support the healthy development of children in the NWT are focused on areas of greatest need. The information was collected over three years using the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a standardized method of measuring readiness to learn that is used across Canada and in several other countries."

Excerpt: "Motion 2617(4) called for the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) to provide a feasibility study on the concept of universal and affordable child care delivered by people trained in early childhood development and education, similar to the systems in Québec and Scandinavia."

Excerpt: "$1.5 million to help offset the costs of the junior kindergarten program as it is rolled out in all NWT communities for four-year old children and a commitment to spend an additional $2.7 million for schools before the end of the 18th Legislative Assembly to ensure that this critical program can be implemented in all communities."

Excerpt: "The Department of ECE is also continuing work to increase the number of qualified ECD professionals in licensed programs and developing a dual-credit ECD program for senior secondary students. A focus on improving the quality of licensed early childhood education and care programs is evidenced by the Department of ECE’s efforts to implement the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale in licensed early childhood programs."

Excerpt: "The agreement allocates more than $7 million, over three years, to the Northwest Territories for early learning and child care investments. The funding will support: delivery of high-quality early learning and child care; culturally relevant professional development and training for all staff working within licensed early childhood programs; an increase in the number of qualified early childhood development professionals in licensed programs; and access to early learning and child care opportunities within all communities in the Northwest Territories."

Excerpt: "The Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, released its 2017 Early Childhood Education Report. This report assesses early childhood education programming in Canada by province and territory. From 2014 to 2017, the Northwest Territories’ rating increased from 6.5 to 8.0 out of 15, which places the NWT exactly in the middle of all of the provinces and territories. This ranking shows that as a government we have made early childhood development a priority and are investing in our youngest residents; a commitment that must continue."