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Posted on The Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy.

Excerpt: "As Canadian political leaders embark on the longest election campaign in our history they are finding that child care is an issue resonating with voters. Among the unexpected interested are 160 scientists and a coalition of charitable foundations. Earlier this summer the groups issued separate public statements, each urging policy makers to invest in high quality programs for preschoolers."

Excerpt: "Municipal child care is not care like any other. It addresses the critical shortage of care for infants, it responds to children with exceptional needs and to families in crisis. It fills a gap that centres in the community and home care do not have the capacity to provide. In closing the Region’s centres you will be leaving many of these families with no place to go."

Excerpt: "This study was commissioned by the New Brunswick Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to support the work of its Child Care Taskforce. The authors were asked to develop a cost benefit analysis of the potential social and economic impacts of public spending on child care in the province. They were also asked to provide recommendations on child care service delivery based on best practices in other Canadian jurisdictions."

Excerpt: "The success of f/p/t early childhood agreements are traditionally measured by the counting of new child care spaces or the size of financial transfers per child. These are inadequate measures, which on their own do not improve child outcomes. Can the pending talks open a new dialogue, informed by the best research, and centred around the best interests of young children? Can these discussions be a catalyst for turning provincial/territorial service patchworks into effective early childhood systems which finally tackle access and quality challenges while addressing the educational inequities children experience, especially those of Aboriginal heritage?"

Excerpt: "We are pleased that the ministry recognizes the critical role of early childhood educators in the delivery of quality programs and services. Increasing the density of qualified staff in childcare programs, coupled with the recent hourly wage enhancements are important steps. Expanding the staff qualifications related to older school age children is appropriate given the developmental needs of this age group."

Excerpt: "This study investigated the effects of participation levels (dose) on child development (response) in five school sites offering integrated early childhood services as part of the Toronto First Duty (TFD) demonstration project. The TFD model offered an integrated school-based service array for children under 6, including public school kindergarten, childcare, family literacy, parenting supports and other early childhood services. While investigating program dose effects, this study also considered the social ecology of the child, including family- and school-level characteristics that might alter the effectiveness of community-level service integration efforts to improve child development outcomes in kindergarten as children enter school."

Excerpt: "Early childhood is the most effective and cost-efficient time to address inequalities and break intergenerational cycles of disadvantage."

Excerpt: "While children have the least control over their economic circumstances they also have the most to gain from intentional interventions. Public policy designed to benefit children does make a difference."

Excerpt: "Polling indicates Canadians understand and value public education, placing it only behind health care as a public good. As such we legislate it as a child’s right, invest in it and provide public oversight. Canadians are less familiar with childcare and are unsure where responsibility lies for its provision."

Excerpt: "Across all eight communities participants expressed dissatisfaction with low wages, which they felt did not reflect their level of training or experience in the sector. The majority of participants believed that in order to recruit and retain RECEs, the starting wage should be set at $20 per hour or be equal to the starting wage of Designated Early Childhood Educators (DECEs) working in FDK programs. For example, a participant from Peel stated, “As educators, we set the foundation for children and deserve equal pay to teachers.” The AECEO’s regional wage scale discussion paper suggests using the wages and benefits currently paid by municipal programs and other unionized environments as a benchmark for wage scales in the province (AECEO, 2015). Higher salaries and better benefits paid by school boards have lead many RECEs to leave positions in licensed child care to pursue careers in FDK, resulting in a recruitment and retention strain in licensed child care. Discussions about wages and benefits in FDK vs licensed child care led a number of participants to acknowledge feeling divided as a workforce."

Excerpt: "Investments in expanding both capacity and affordability must go hand-in-hand. Each municipality needs the flexibility to plan the right balance based on local circumstances between increasing access through capital and increasing access through operating/subsidy. Allowing for a phased approach provides the flexibility to change based on changing circumstances from year to year."

Excerpt: "What is needed now, for the early years and child care system, can be achieved in a gradual, orderly transition following from the innovative work that was set underway when your government created the public alternative to private delivery of early childhood education and care in Ontario for children ages four and five years. The reality is that more than one quarter of families in which parents are working or in school for 30 or more hours per week, have no regular child care arrangements. They resort to split shifts and weekend work which results in poorer work-life balance, reduced family time, and increased stress. And, of the children who are in a care arrangement full-time, more than one third are in informal care arrangements."