News & Stories: Policy Monitor

The provincial government has "re-instated the wage enhancement of $2.75 per hour for early learning and childcare staff. The initiative supports the pay equity measures for early learning and childcare staff".

The Premier of New Brunswick provided a progress report on its three-year action plan, Putting Children First: Positioning Early Childhood for the Future, unveiled last spring. Included in the plan are integrating early childhood and education services, realigning the boundaries for local early childhood services with school district boundaries and extending the definition of early childhood up to children 8-years-old.

The government of New Brunswick announced it would be "investing an additional $1 million in the Day Care Assistance program to increase childcare subsidies and to expand the program eligibility to help families with early learning and childcare costs." This funding is part of the government's $38-million three-year action plan Putting Children First.

The budget contains more than $230 million in spending reduction initiatives across departments that are designed to offset inflationary pressures. Detailed, in-depth reviews are underway in the departments of Health, Education and Early Childhood Development, Social Development, and Transportation and Infrastructure to identify service delivery efficiencies. Various efficiency measures have been rolled out across all departmental budgets to offset inflationary and service demand pressures and allow for select new investments.

Investing in our children and our schools is one of our government’s top priorities. With the challenging financial situation that we face, we must ensure that we get maximum value from every dollar we invest in our learning system. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s (EECD) budget is increasing by one per cent in 2014-2015.

Excerpt: "Increasing the budget for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development by 3.1 per cent so that strategic investments can be made that will be guided by new, comprehensive plans for both education and literacy."

As of April 2, 2015, all approved Child Day Care Facilities Inspection Reports will be available online.

Excerpt: "New investments in early childhood development represent more than $3.5 million. Total funding allocated to the Early Childhood Development division totals $76.8 million. Of that amount, $23.6 million has been allocated to the Quality Improvement Financial Program to provide wage enhancement to educators working directly with children in regulated childcare facilities. The Preschool Autism Intervention Program has received $15.8 million. In addition, almost $10 million has been allocated to projects such as a new childcare registry, an early intervention program and new licensing technology."

Excerpt: "New Brunswick’s approach to child rights enforcement is innovative in how it blends children’s rights and wellbeing. It is an approach inspired by the dominant discourses of our time: a) we follow UNICEF and the UNCRC’s child rights-based approach to policy-making4; and b) we combine it with the World Health Organization’s social determinants of health agenda5. Meaningful child rights enforcement is not merely a matter of good process, good laws, accessible remedies and educational efforts. The enjoyment of rights also has to be a demonstrably lived experience. Outcome indicators are the real evidence as to whether a child rights agenda has been meaningfully implemented."

Excerpt: "The 2016-17 provincial budget tabled today in the legislative assembly outlines plans to put the province’s finances on the right track, protect education and health care and invest in job creation."

Valuing Children, Families and Childcare Report: The task force had a mandate to provide a path for creating the right conditions for child care and to suggest ways to address the challenges parents face in obtaining access to quality and affordable child care services.

The plans, entitled Everyone at Their Best for the anglophone sector and Donnons à nos enfants une longueur d’avance for the francophone sector, identify objectives for the early learning and education system and establish clear expectations for standards and performance.