News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "Under this agreement, the federal government will invest close to $30 million to improve early learning and child care for preschool-aged children in New Brunswick. The province will contribute an additional $41 million for a total of $71 million; Investments will transform at least 300 current child care providers into designated New Brunswick Early Learning Centres which will provide more quality spaces, have lower fee structures, and implement inclusion policies and guidelines for francophone minority communities. Funding will also be used to provide professional development opportunities for early child care educators and to support other initiatives to improve early learning and child care in the province."

Excerpt: "Operators of child care facilities will be eligible for $12.2 million in grants as part of a plan to designate hundreds of facilities as Early Learning Centres offering high-quality, inclusive and affordable services."

Excerpt: "New Brunswick Early Learning Centres will offer services to preschool children aged five and under through a voluntary application process. Daycares are not required to be part of this program. Those that choose to do so will work in collaboration with the government with the aim of offering equitable and affordable access to high-quality early learning and child care services by removing barriers linked to family income, children’s abilities and needs, language and minority settings."

Excerpt: "The free daycare program is for parents who are either working or attending school, with children aged five and under attending a designated New Brunswick Early Learning Centre."

Excerpt: "The provincial government announced today that families with children aged five and under attending a designated New Brunswick Early Learning Centre will not pay more than 20 per cent of their income for child care."

Excerpt: "In addition to the multi-year bilateral funding, your government is also investing $28 million to support wage increases for early childhood educators. This funding will be rolled out over four years beginning in 2019–2020 and raise wages from $16 an hour to $19 an hour for trained early childhood educators by 2022–2023."

Excerpt: "The provincial government has signed a three-year bilat-eral agreement under the Early Learning and Child Care federal framework The provincial and federal funding will result in the creation of NB Early Learning Centres through which families will access affordable quality child care Grants to help pay for the cost of providing vquality child care will be provided through EECD directly to the NB Early Learning Centres There was a phased-in approach for the designation initiative, Phase 1 began in Q4 2017-2018 with 55 facilities being initially targeted, and subsequently approved, for designation."

Excerpt: "The provincial government has announced a 75 cent per hour wage increase for early childhood educators who have completed a two-year college diploma or a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a related field."

Excerpt: "Today, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, announced $14 million in federal support for New Brunswick’s child care sector to help ensure that safe and sufficient child care spaces are available to support parents’ gradual return to work."

Excerpt: "The agreement allocates nearly $10 million in 2020–21 for early learning and child care investments in New Brunswick. Specifically, New Brunswick will continue to collaborate with the childcare sector and maintain the New Brunswick Early Learning Centres designation to ensure all families and children in the province have access to high-quality, affordable child care in the official language of their choice by 2030."

Excerpt: "Funding from the Safe Restart Agreement will be provided through a monthly grant to licensed early learning and child-care facilities that meet the following terms and conditions: using the funding to offset the cost associated with the impact of COVID-19; ensuring hours of operation meet the needs of parents to support workforce participation; ensuring licensed spaces are made available based on demand; and updating space availability monthly on the department’s Parent Portal."

Excerpt: "World-class education: $1.7 million to support the development and delivery of distance learning opportunities; $1.2 million to maintain the additional technicians put in place to provide technical support to teachers and students; $1 million to continue support of the Laptop Subsidy Program, helping an estimated 2,000 students access technology for the upcoming year; A wage increase of 75 cents per hour for qualified early childhood educators."