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Excerpt: "Recently, child-care operators have expressed several concerns relating to long-term sustainability and a lack of flexibility under the agreement. For these reasons, Premier Danielle Smith has appointed Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade Matt Jones to lead the province’s work on child care. Minister Jones has extensive experience from his time as minister of children’s services and will immediately engage with the federal government to address the concerns of operators and to ensure child care remains sustainable for Alberta families. To provide immediate support, Alberta’s government is actively working on a new system that will streamline payment processes and ensure child-care operators receive affordability grant payments faster. This work is being done in partnership with the Ministry of Technology and Innovation, and additional information will be made available in the coming weeks."

Excerpt: "Over the course of the three-year plan, Nova Scotia’s Canada-wide ELCC Action Plan 2023–2024 to 2025–2026 outlines spending of more than $440 million in five areas: Affordability - More than $285 million towards the goal of achieving regulated child care fees of $10-a-day average by March 31, 2026. The Government of Nova Scotia has already reduced child care fees by an average of 50% as of December 2022 saving families up to $6,000 per year, per child. When combined with the Child Care Subsidy Program, this resulted in more than 3,000 families having access to free child care; Access - $52 million towards the creation of 9,500 new regulated child care spaces by March 2026. In Nova Scotia, 3,861 new spaces have already been created as of December 31, 2023; Quality - More than $105 million toward an early childhood educator (ECE) compensation framework, including ongoing support for the ECE wage grid introduced in November 2022, and implementing retirement and health benefits for all ECEs and ELCC workers in the regulated sector; Inclusion - More than $30 million to implement an inclusive early learning and child care strategy that focuses on respect for diversity and strives for equity, inclusion and accessibility across the child care system; as well as continuing to support inclusion measures for diverse and vulnerable communities, including children with additional needs. Nova Scotia is committed to creating inclusive spaces to support diverse and vulnerable children and families, including children with disabilities and children needing enhanced or individual supports, Indigenous children, Black and other racialized children, children of newcomers, and official language minorities; Administration - $23 million to support the implementation and administration of the Canada–Nova Scotia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, including building targeted capacity and additional resources within the Government of Nova Scotia to support the implementation of initiatives, and enhanced data collection and reporting."

Meet our 2023 Lora Dolores Antoniette Pallotta Memorial Graduate Scholarship recipient, Shawna Grossman!

The Atkinson Centre promotes research on child development, and the development of early learning policy and practice that serve young children and their families.

Excerpt: "The first measure will increase the minimum enrolment threshold for regulated child care centres participating in the Operating Grant Program. The threshold for those centres to receive full grant funding will increase from 70 per cent enrolment to 90 per cent enrolment. This change will come into effect on April 1, 2024. Regional staff from the Department of Education will work with all child care centers to maximize capacity and minimize operational impact. Rural and remote services will not be financially impacted by the increase in enrolment threshold."

Excerpt: "The newly approved $10-a-day spaces are offered at 25 child care centres throughout B.C., including Houston, Squamish, Surrey and Vancouver. For this intake, government’s focus was to prioritize new $10-a-day facilities in communities that do not yet have access to the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program or have a low number of $10-a-day spaces compared to the region’s population density. In addition to the $10-a-day spaces, provincial and federal investments are helping approximately 128,000 families with the cost of child care at centres that are not part of the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program through child care fee reductions of up to $900 per month per child. When combined with the Affordable Child Care Benefit, many families are paying $10 a day or less for child care, including those not participating in the $10 a Day program."

The Atkinson Centre promotes research on child development, and the development of early learning policy and practice that serve young children and their families.

The Atkinson Centre promotes research on child development, and the development of early learning policy and practice that serve young children and their families.

Master of Arts (MA) in Child Study and Education
Expected year of graduation: 2025

Professor Kang Lee presents "Effective methods to curb academic cheating on exams: recent advances" at a January 18 Focus on research event hosted by the Office of the Associate Dean, Research, International & Innovation. (Photo courtesy of Kang Lee).