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Excerpt: "Education announces capital funding to include child care space in school buildings and/or on school property adjacent to schools. Capital funding for 15 school-based sites."

Excerpt: "The issue of whether early childhood educators are deemed to be full-time early education professionals like teachers, or whether they are treated as ten-month contract positions is still to be resolved. According to Service Canada (2011), if early childhood educators are considered full-time salaried teaching staff, they will not qualify for employment insurance. However..."

Access to child care and early learning emphasized in Throne Speech.

Ministerial Advisory Committee on Early Learning and Childcare announced. The committee will provide advice on implementing the government’s Early Learning and Childcare Plan under four key principles of accessibility; affordability; inclusiveness; and quality early learning and child care. The committee will also facilitate communication between the department and early learning and child care centres, parents, schools and community partners.

Excerpt: "In 2007 the newly re-elected Premier Dalton McGuinty asked former deputy minister Charles Pascal to look into the best way to implement full day kindergarten for all Ontario four-and five-year-olds. Fast forward five years and another appointee, this time former banker Don Drummond, is being asked what to eliminate from the budget to ensure Ontario stays on track to eradicate a $16-billion deficit. Top Liberals are being ruthless signaling the provincial budget will proceed with previously announced corporate tax breaks while requiring ministries to cut up to 30 per cent of their costs. 'Bear the pain for future gain' is the current mantra but there won’t be much pain sharing. Program cuts tend to disproportionately affect the vulnerable while tax increases are shared across the economic strata. Finding cheaper ways of delivering full time kindergarten, or eliminating it altogether have been floated in the media. As Pascal told CBC radio, "There are two kinds of policy making—smart and dumb. And cutting full day kindergarten is definitely dumb.""

Excerpt: "The Saskatchewan government announced more support for early childhood educators. Supports include: an increase in start-up grants for school-age spaces from $308 to $615 per child; Tuition Reimbursement Grants increase from $150 per individual course to $500; and from $450 to $1,500 for the Early Childhood Orientation course equivalent to an Early Childhood Educator I. In addition, early childhood educators working in a licensed setting can also apply for a Professional Development Support Grant to assist with the costs of attending in-province professional development opportunities taking place between September 1, 2010 and March 15, 2011."

The Atkinson Centre joined Ryerson University, George Brown College, and the Child Care Resource and Research Unit in sponsoring a Symposium on "Pedagogical Leadership: Lead From Where You Stand" to discuss the recommendations for staffing Ontario's new Early Learning Programs and Child and Family Centre.

Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centres, with the agreement of the Department of Health and Wellness, will increase speech-language services to French-speaking families and focus on preventing communication disorders in young children through parent workshops and training for early childhood educators and other caregivers. $267,000 for the three-year pre-school initiative is provided by the Official Languages Health Contribution Program.

Excerpt: "If there was one thing the government could do right now for children and families in Ontario, what could that be? ....We have an opportunity to build a foundation for services for children and their families – but that means making a radical move toward something different and innovative. It means moving away from the rhetoric of business as usual, working within the silos that fit like an old sweater but are starting to smell a little mouldy."

The State of Our Children and Youth report and The Right to Identity, Culture and Language: A Child's Path to Development (A Statistical Background Report to the Child and Youth Advocate's 3rd Annual State of our Children and Youth Address) released.

Excerpt: "Building Manitoba’s skilled and dynamic workforce, preserving and building on services for families such as health care, education and training, and enhancing public safety highlighted this year’s speech from the throne today during the launch of the fifth session of the 39th legislative assembly."

Excerpt: "...at St. Francis Community School in Regina, Education Minister Donna Harpauer announced the Government of Saskatchewan is providing $885,000 to nine school divisions to implement 18 new Prekindergarten programs in ten communities across the province."