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Policy Monitor

The Policy Monitor tracks Federal, Provincial and Territorial early childhood policy initiatives, developments and announcements.

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British Columbia
Excerpt: "Three new AHS centres are providing a total of 108 new child care spaces, including 48 spaces in Colwood, 44 in Kelowna and 20 in Vancouver. AHS is a culturally relevant early-learning and child care program for Indigenous children up to age six and their families that provides wraparound family support and inclusion services at no cost."

Ontario
Excerpt: "The Women鈥檚 Economic Security Program offers training in four streams: skilled trades, entrepreneurship, information technology, and general employment. To help remove barriers to participating, the training programs also include additional supports such as providing meals throughout the training day, transportation to and from training, and support finding child care."

Saskatchewan
Excerpt: "Today the Governments of Saskatchewan and Canada announced $8.4 million in early learning and child care workforce enhancement grants to assist eligible child care centres and group family child care homes in recruiting and retaining staff, as well as an additional $1 million for a total of nearly $53 million to the Early Childhood Educator (ECE) wage enhancement grant. This change will provide a $1 an hour increase to the ECE wage enhancement grant maximums for all certification levels."

Manitoba
Excerpt: "Students heading back to class will now be able to get a nutritious meal or snack when they need one, with the universal school nutrition program now available in every school in the province, Premier Wab Kinew and Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Nello Altomare announced today. 鈥淜ids can鈥檛 learn on an empty stomach,鈥 said Kinew. 鈥淲e made a commitment to Manitoba families that we鈥檇 make sure kids across our province had access to food when they go to school, and we鈥檝e delivered on that promise. As kids head back to class this week, they鈥檒l be able to get a meal or a snack when they need one, so they can concentrate, learn and reach their full potential.鈥 The Manitoba government committed $30 million in Budget 2024 to make a meal or snack available to students across the province."

Newfoundland & Labrador
Excerpt: "When kids eat well, they do better in school. And when kids do well in school, they succeed. The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Dr. Andrew Furey, today announced an agreement to expand school food programs in the province. This agreement, under the National School Food Program, will result in 4,100 more kids in Newfoundland and Labrador getting healthy meals this school year. Participating families with two kids will save an estimated $800 a year, on average. It will mean lower grocery bills for families and school meals for kids 鈥 helping them learn, grow, and get the best start in life. Newfoundland and Labrador is the first province to reach an agreement with the federal government through the new National School Food Program. This initial investment of approximately $9.1 million over three years will help more kids get access to school food. We invite all provinces and territories to reach these agreements 鈥 it鈥檚 one of the best investments we can make to lower costs, support families, and care for our kids."

Saskatchewan
Excerpt: "Today, the Government of Canada and Saskatchewan announced an investment of $71.3 million to allocate more than 5,000 child care centre spaces across the province throughout 2024-25. To date, 1,537 of these child care centre spaces have been allocated to new child care facilities or added into existing facilities in 27 Saskatchewan communities and 36 organizations. The other 3,463 spaces will be allocated throughout the remainder of the fiscal year. "This investment will create more opportunities for families to find accessible and high-quality child care in their local communities," Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said. "Expanding child care facilities throughout the province will be an addition to supporting the wellbeing for Saskatchewan families.""

Prince Edward Island
Excerpt: "Licensed school-age child care centres will be able to access new funding to help them deliver before and after school programming for Island children. To ensure Island families can continue to access affordable child care programming, the Province is investing $537,900 to support operational costs and encourage more organizations to offer school-age child care programs. The new funding will include a one-time stabilization grant for existing operators and a new licensing incentive grant for new operators."

British Columbia
Excerpt: "Through the Province鈥檚 StrongerBC: Future Ready Action Plan, $12.5 million over three years is supporting provincewide recruitment and training initiatives for teachers. This year, almost $4 million is going toward recruitment and training programs, with a focus on supporting teacher retention in the sector, improving flexibility in teacher education programs, and recruiting more teachers in rural and remote communities."

Alberta
Excerpt: "Alberta鈥檚 government and its education partners are continuing to modernize the education system and improve student success by developing and piloting a curriculum that will drive a passion for learning. The new draft K-6 social studies curriculum, which was developed after nine months of consultation with education partners, teachers, parents and Albertans, focuses on building students鈥 critical thinking skills and empowers them to be engaged citizens. Since the new draft K-6 social studies curriculum was released in April 2024, 62 school authorities and more than 1,700 teachers across 429 schools have signed up to pilot the curriculum during the 2024-25 school year."

Nova Scotia
Excerpt: "Phase 1 of the school lunch program includes every school that has elementary school grades, which adds up to more than 75,000 students and potentially more than 13 million lunches served in the coming school year. It is a pay-what-you-can program, meaning families can choose to pay the full $6.50 cost of the lunch, part of the cost or nothing. All payment information is kept confidential. Lunches will start in schools on October 1, 15 or 28, with ordering opening two weeks before the first lunches are served. Families will be able to choose between two lunch options every school day, with at least one vegetarian (no meat) lunch offered each day. In total, there will be 40 menu options that rotate weekly when the program starts in October. Each meal provides balanced nutrition and meets the standards outlined in Canada鈥檚 Food Guide and the Nova Scotia School Food and Nutrition Policy."

Saskatchewan
Excerpt: "In Saskatchewan over the next two years nearly $35 million will be invested to continue to deliver tuition-free early childhood educator (ECE) training, professional development and student financial support. Through the Canada-Saskatchewan Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, up to $16.5 million in the 2024-25 academic year and up to $18.4 million in the 2025-26 academic year will be directed toward opportunities to support ECE skills and knowledge. The additional funding will create more than 4,000 tuition-free training seats over two years. This will allow current and future educators to advance or start their career in early childhood education and obtain their ECE Certification Level I, II or III. The investment also supports more than 5,300 professional development seats, helping educators gain knowledge to excel in their roles."
Excerpt: "Starting January 1, 2025, the new funding approach described in the new Cost-Based Funding Guideline will take effect. Cost-based funding provides support for operating costs for licensees participating in CWELCC for the delivery of child care to children aged 0-5 years. Design of the new approach was heavily guided by extensive stakeholder engagement. As a result, and as described in the new guideline, cost-based funding is guided by the following principles: Transparent: Clear and consistent approach, both locally and across CMSMs/DSSABs so that licensees know what to expect from CMSMs/DSSABs. Representative: Funding is responsive to how child care is delivered in Ontario and based on the true costs of providing child care to eligible children. Simple: Easy to understand with minimal administrative burden. Accountable: Cost control structures and safeguards ensure accountability for and equitable distribution of public funding."