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Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Premier of Prince Edward Island, Dennis King, today announced an agreement that will support an average of $10 a day early learning and child care in the province in three years. PEI is on track to meet this target by the end of 2024, significantly reducing the price of child care for families. Through the agreement, the governments of Canada and Prince Edward Island will work together to improve access to quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services. This includes creating 452 new regulated early learning and child care spaces within two years to ensure all families of children under age six can access child care. The federal funding of nearly $121.3 million over the next five years also includes a one time investment of about $3.6 million in 2021-2022 to support the early childhood workforce."

Excerpt: "Through the agreement, the Government of Canada is providing over $290 million in funding over 4 years to Alberta to improve access to high quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services."

Excerpt: "Today’s announcement includes the creation of 110 new regulated early learning and child care spaces within five years to help ensure families of children under six years old can access child care spaces that meet their needs. The Government of Canada’s investment builds on Yukon’s efforts to date to ensure that all families have access to an average of $10 a day out-of-pocket parent fees for full-time regulated child care spaces for children under age six. This agreement will fund critical services, and attract, retain and grow a strong and skilled workforce of early childhood educators, including through greater opportunities for professional development. This agreement also supports the ongoing implementation of Yukon’s wage grid, which provides a minimum wage of nearly $30 an hour to fully qualified early childhood educators— the highest minimum wage for early childhood educators in the country."

Posted on The Globe and Mail.

Excerpt: "Surprise! No jurisdiction in Canada is better equipped to create a system of high-quality, accessible early learning and child care; a system that can reduce inequalities in a way comparable to schools and health care. Ontario already provides early learning to a quarter-million – 90 per cent – of four- and five-year-olds in its kindergarten classrooms and requires schools to provide before- and after-school care where parents want it. More than half the province´s schools already have child care, and a billion-dollar capital program is under way to add more. Building on your existing public assets is the secret sauce in bringing high-quality early learning and child care to a neighbourhood near you. Ontario leads that parade."

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.

Excerpt: "Nova Scotia’s Early Learning and Child Care System will focus on affordability, accessibility, inclusion and quality. The plan will: reduce child care fees by an average of 50 per cent by Dec. 31, 2022; ensure child care fees are, on average, $10 per day by 2026; create at least 9,500 new early learning and child care spaces by March 31, 2025, including new spaces for infants and toddlers, and a new three-year-old early learning program with priority access given to vulnerable and equity-seeking families; enhance before and after care options at schools."

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: "Under this agreement, the governments of Canada and British Columbia will work together to improve access to quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services. British Columbia and Canada agree on the goal of $10 a day child care, and will work together towards achieving an average parent fee of $10 per day for all regulated child care spaces for children under 6 by the end of the five-year agreement. By the end of 2022, British Columbians will see a 50 per cent reduction in average parent fees for children under the age of 6 in regulated child care.

This agreement will lead to the creation of 30,000 new regulated early learning and child care spaces for children under the age of 6 within five years, and 40,000 spaces within seven years. These spaces will be focused on community investments that are long-term and run by public and non-profit institutions.

The agreement will fund critical services and support early childhood educators, including through the development of a wage grid."

Presented by Dr. Emis Akbari, Professor, School of Early Childhood, George Brown College/Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development at Science Writers and Communicators Canada: Seeding Resilience in our Future Generations, June 2021.

Posted on The News Forum.

Andrea Mrozek, Peter Shawn Taylor and Dr. Emis Akbari join Tanya to discuss the Liberal Government’s plan to reduce child care costs for all Canadians.

²ÝÝ®ÎÛÊÓƵµ¼º½ Community tribute to Dean Glen Jones at the completion of his term.