Excerpt: "As of July 2023, the benefit increased by an additional $250 per year for a two-parent family of four and as much as $750 for a single-parent family with two children. Approximately 95% of single-parent families in B.C. get the benefit, with payments averaging $2,254 over the year."
Excerpt: “Provinces and territories shared how they have been working to strengthen the workforce by establishing and expanding wage grids and training initiatives and by advancing recruitment, retention and recognition supports. The strategy will be an added tool for all ministers to consider as they continue to work toward their shared goal of providing more families in Canada with access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care, no matter where they live. Additionally, Ontario has committed to taking the lead on establishing a working group on inter-provincial and territorial mobility and foreign credential recognition for the early childhood education workforce to ensure seamless movement of qualified staff across Canada and from around the world.”
Excerpt: "The University of British Columbia is receiving a total of $239,765 in federal funding over 24 months, effective January 2023, for their project titled Professional Development for ELCC Workers Through an Indigenous-ECE Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This project focuses on providing early childhood educators with professional development opportunities to receive training on incorporating Indigenous perspectives, worldviews and pedagogies into early learning and child care environments through the development of an online course. The goal is that by widely offering this free online training across Canada, more ECEs will have these critical skills. This means that more Indigenous families and children will have access to affordable, culturally appropriate early learning and child care."
Excerpt: "The Nova Scotia Child Benefit is a tax-free payment to help eligible families with the cost of raising children under 18 years of age. Budget 2023-24 invests an additional $8 million in the benefit to help support families with incomes below $34,000. Families receiving the benefit will see: a $250 increase for the first child and each additional child for families earning less than $26,000; a $250 increase for the first child and $125 for each additional child for those earning between $26,000 and $33,999; In the last two years, the annual payment for families at the lowest income level has increased by $600 per child to $1,525."
Excerpt: "The Ontario government is expanding licensed child care spaces in the City of Ottawa by investing more than $178 million in 2023 to support the implementation of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system. This support delivers a significant reduction of child care fees for Ottawa families by 50 per cent on average and is helping to save families an annual average of $6,000 to $10,000 per child. An additional 2,900 licensed child care spaces will be created in Ottawa by 2026. These new spaces for children aged zero to five will represent a 9.4 per cent increase of child care spaces available in the community – increasing access to more families across the region."
Excerpt: "Today in Ottawa, the Honourable Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board of Canada, on behalf of the Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, joined the Honourable Stephen Lecce, Ontario’s Minister of Education, to announce the creation of just over 2,900 new affordable child care spaces in Ottawa. As part of the Canada–Ontario Canada-wide ELCC Agreement, the Government of Canada is providing more than $10.2 billion toward early learning and child care in Ontario. Under this agreement, Ontario is on track to create 86,000 new spaces by the end of 2026, including up to 42,000 by the end of 2023. The agreement with Ontario is part of the larger Canada-wide plan to create 250,000 new child care spaces across the country. These new licensed spaces will be predominantly among not-for-profit, public and family-based child care providers."
Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the establishment of the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund to help public and not-for-profit child care providers deliver affordable child care for families by funding the cost of physical infrastructure needed to create more spaces like real estate and building materials. This new Fund will provide an additional $625 million to provinces and territories to create spaces in communities that currently do not have enough of them. The Fund will support child care spaces for underserved communities, including in rural and remote regions, high-cost and low-income urban neighbourhoods, and communities that face barriers to access, such as racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples, official language minority communities, newcomers, as well as parents, caregivers, and children with disabilities."
Excerpt: "The Manitoba government is providing a total of $281,572 in grant funding to support 34 innovative projects to make facility improvements, enhance health and safety and support access and inclusivity at child-care facilities through the Child Care Sustainability Trust, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko announced today. “Our government understands that as parents work, seek employment and attend educational programs, that access to quality child care that meets the needs of families is more important than ever,” said Ewasko. “These grants build on other recent investments to support increased access to child-care services across the province, and will support a wide range of facility needs to ensure quality child-care services are available to Manitoba families.”"
Excerpt: "The governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing more than $24 million to develop and expand early childhood educator (ECE) and child-care assistant (CCA) training programs at Manitoba’s post-secondary institutions over the next three years. “Earlier this year, our government invited Manitoba’s publicly-funded post-secondary institutions to submit proposals to develop or expand education and training programs for the early learning and child-care sector,” said Guillemard. “I’m pleased that five post-secondary institutions have been approved to receive funding, with a number of them updating their program delivery to provide more flexible, accelerated training options that meet the standards for certification.” Five public post-secondary institutions will receive funding to expand training for child-care professionals following an invitation from the province to submit expressions of interest in March 2023. This funding will add an estimated 998 seats in the province over a three-year period and will support approximately 2,000 total new student admissions."
Excerpt: "The Provincial Government is issuing a call for members to expand the Minister of Education’s Early Learning and Child Care Advisory Committee. Members of the advisory committee will contribute to the development and implementation of the provincial Early Learning Action Plan 2023-2026. The committee will provide advice to the Minister of Education respecting early learning and child care, programs and services, and funding and activities that support early learning and child care and ensure a high quality and inclusive system."
Excerpt: "The Manitoba government is investing more than $1.6 million to expand access to early years evaluations and digital assessment tools in English and French for educators and clinicians across the province, to support early identification of learning needs, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko announced today. “Our government knows how important it is for educators and clinicians to be able to identify learning needs early on, especially to support literacy instruction and intervention,” said Ewasko. “These new resources will provide teachers and clinicians with equitable access to early identification tools, specialized assessments and interventions to identify student learning needs, and develop supports and programming to improve outcomes.”"
Excerpt: "The Department of Education is holding public consultation sessions throughout the province to seek input and recommendations on the development of an Early Learning Action Plan, including a legislative review of the Child Care Act and regulations. The province has been strengthening its efforts to create an affordable, accessible, and quality early learning system in Newfoundland and Labrador. Additional information can be found in backgrounder below. Public consultations on the Early Learning Action Plan offers an opportunity for those in the early learning and child care sector, stakeholders and the public, to provide input and feedback on programs and legislation, and how they can be improved to meet the needs of children and families in Newfoundland and Labrador."
