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Excerpt: "The Wage Enhancement Program provides funding to operators to help offset the salaries of early childhood educators. It currently provides a top up of $3.15 per hour for an educator without recognized formal training and $7.25 per hour for an educator with college or university training. This program is offered to all licensed facilities who must provide this wage top up over and above the minimum wage which is currently at $11.75 per hour."

Excerpt: "Readily accessible and affordable early learning and child care gives children a strong foundation, allows parents to participate in the workforce and leads to stronger families. Building on hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to date, Budget 2022 includes $94.7 million through the Provincial-Federal Action Plan, including: Almost $46 million to continue the reduction in daily fees to $10 per day by 2023; $16 million for the creation of new regulated early learning spaces, including the launch of a pre-kindergarten pilot program. Supports plans to create nearly 6,000 new regulated early learning spaces by 2026; $3 million to increase seats in post-secondary Early Childhood Education programs; $400,000 to support a wage grid analysis and implementation that will ensure early childhood educators are paid a wage that reflects their important work."

Excerpt: "The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is forecast to be $49.6 million higher than Budget primarily due to $33.0 million for fully recoverable expenses related to the 5-year agreement with the federal government for universal childcare, $10.9 million in fully recoverable Early Childhood Workforce training initiatives, and $6.1 million in COVID-19 related expenses mainly in operating support grants to the childcare sector."

Excerpt: "Investing $326 million over two years to make child care more affordable and accessible for Manitoba parents; Creating 716 spaces in new child-care centres and supporting 50 new home-based spaces this year; Investing in new schools, with a new goal to build 22 new schools by 2027."

Excerpt: "Infant, toddler and preschool spaces are limited across the province increasing demand for spaces. As of 2021, there are 5,498 regulated infant, toddler and preschool spaces. By working with municipalities, and not-for-profit organizations under the Child Care Capacity Program through work with the soon to be created Early Learning and Child Care Evaluation and Research Team, communities most in need of infant, toddler and preschool spaces will be identified."

Excerpt: "Child care staff employed by Licensees with maximum wage increases specified under the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019 (PSPSFGA) may not be eligible for an increase in compensation to the wage floor or to the $1 per hour annual wage increase. Licensees are required to meet any applicable obligations under the PSPSFGA."

Posted on Early Childhood Education Report.

In 2021, the Government of Canada committed to providing sustained funding to provinces and territories to expand access to more affordable child care. The ultimate goal is to create a Canada-wide early learning and child care plan to drive economic growth, support women’s workforce participation, and give every Canadian child a head start. Achieving these objectives requires a qualified early childhood education workforce.

The early childhood education workforce is large, with 300,000 plus members representing more than1% of the working population. Workforce members can be found in many sectors, including licensed 1 child care, health, education, family support, and settlement services. Every Canadian jurisdiction has legislation governing the provision of regulated, or licensed,1 child care services. This report focuses on those working in child care centres or group care. It provides a status report on today’s child care workforce and the challenges it faces, along with promising practices. It concludes with a series of recommendations. The intent is to draw attention to the centrality of educators in creating Canada’s newest social program and the policies and resources they require to make it a success.

Information was compiled using data from Statistics Canada; extensive discussions with early childhood educators, program leaders, and government officials; and reviews of recent workforce surveys and provincial/territorial reports.

Excerpt: "As part of Alberta’s approach to supporting inclusive child care, an additional $3.6 million in funding is being provided through a bilateral agreement with the federal government, bringing the investment to $7 million. Funding will go to five regional partner agencies across Alberta. These agencies will work with licensed child care operators so they can better support children with special needs. Continuing on the work they have done over the past few years, $2.7 million is also being invested into GRIT to continue training on their inclusive child care model across the province."

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: "The benefits of this funding will begin immediately, reducing fees in participating licensed child care for children five years old and younger by up to 25 per cent beginning in April 2022, through retroactive rebates to parents between May and December. In December 2022, parents will see another reduction. In total, by the end of 2022, fees for families will be reduced by 50 per cent, on average. Ontario will achieve an average of $10‐a‐day child care by September 2025. To ensure a sustainable future that protects Ontario taxpayers and puts parents first, the Canada–Ontario agreement also ensures that the cost of implementing the agreement will continue to be monitored by Canada and Ontario with an automatic financial review process in 2024–25."

The Atkinson Centre promotes research on child development, and the development of early learning policy and practice that serve young children and their families.

Professors Emis Akbari and Kerry McQuaig argue that decent work for this workforce must be the foundation of Canada’s early learning plan.