
Child Care fees on track to drop substantially in most big cities, but not all are projected to meet targets: new report
Child care fees in Canadian cities are on track to drop significantly, but some provincial child care action plans fall short of meeting the federal government’s target to bring down fees by an average of 50 per cent, says a new fee study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
Mould, Pesticides, Toxic Chemical Exposures Reported in Survey of Canadian Child Care Professionals
Nearly half of some 2,000 professionals in child care programs across Canada who responded to a recent national survey report unhealthy conditions for children, according to data released on national Healthy Environments for Learning Day (HELD). Educators, support...
Ottawa park named after Early Childhood Educator, Cindy Mitchell
Ottawa City Council has approved the renaming of Sir Wilfred Laurier Park to Cindy Mitchell Park on April 13, 2022. This renaming is in recognition of Cindy Mitchell’s extensive service to the community. Mitchell was an Early Childhood Educator, working at Bettye Hyde...
What federal budget 2022 said about early learning and child care
Federal Budget 2022, tabled on April 7, 2022, says the federal government’s previously announced $30 billion investment in early learning and child care (ELCC) will achieve “‘a marked improvement in labour market participation by women with children.” However, child...
Ontario joins Canada-wide early learning and child care system
The Ontario government signed a child care funding agreement with the Government of Canada on March 28, 2022, days before the March 31st deadline. Ontario will lower parent fees for licensed programs by 25% effective April 1, 2022, and another 50% by the end of the...
Media Release: Child care advocates celebrate the signing of thirteen Canada-wide early learning and child care agreements
Child care advocates celebrate the signing of the Canada-Ontario child care funding agreement, but also warn that the Ontario government’s implementation plan is not yet adequate to achieve the promised 86,000 new licensed spaces. “It will be impossible for Ontario to...
Parent fees reduced in Northwest Territories: Space expansion the next hurdle
The governments of Canada and Northwest Territories (NWT) recently announced that fees for regulated child care programs for children under 6 years of age will be reduced by an average of 50 per cent. This reduction is retroactive to January 1, 2022, twelve months...
Federal child care legislation in the works
Child Care Now is calling on the federal government to engage in a full public consultation process prior to tabling Canada’s first-ever federal child care law. In February, federal officials circulated a government discussion paper on legislation to a small number...
Advocates in Nova Scotia call for proper compensation and benefits for early childhood educators
Child Care Now Nova Scotia recently launched The Time is Now campaign to improve the compensation and working conditions of the province’s early childhood educators (ECEs). The Nova Scotia government’s federal-provincial early learning and child care recent funding...
Universal child care essential to the transition to a clean economy
The BC government can accelerate the province’s transition to both universal child care and a clean economy by taking an intersectional approach to child care and environmental policy change, say the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC (CCCABC) and Early Childhood...
Child Care Now calls on federal government to introduce a child care capital expansion program to support creation of promised 200,000 new licensed spaces
Child Care Now’s submission to the Department of Finance’s 2022 pre budget consultation says the federal government’s promise of at least 200,000 new licensed early learning and child care spaces over the next five years cannot be realized without a federal capital...
Update on BC’s early learning and child care plan
Child care advocates in BC have updated their roadmap to guide the construction of a fully comprehensive high quality system of early learning and child care in the province. The plan, which was presented during a webinar organized by the Coalition of Child Care...
Ontario still the lone holdout for Canada’s system of ELCC: Advocates continue their calls for a good agreement now
It has been almost one year since the historic 2021 federal budget announced $30 billion in funding over the next five years to build a Canada-wide system of early learning and child care (ELCC). While 12 out of 13 provinces and territories have signed agreements and...
Commercial child care operators object to Nova Scotia’s ELCC plan
--Some commercial operators mobilize to oppose change. Child care advocates welcomed Nova Scotia’s recently announced plan to transform how licensed child care services are funded and managed, but the province’s commercial providers say the proposed changes will make...
What governments in Canada are doing and not doing to protect staff and children in child care centres
Country-wide, many ECEs and child care workers have been forced to work in unsafe conditions. Even with the release of the COVID-19 vaccine and booster doses, children under five years of age cannot be vaccinated, leaving ECEs and child care workers working in...