Question Period Note: Article in Windsor Star on University of Toronto’s report on the Early Childhood Education Workforce

What are the key findings of the University of Toronto’s report “Canada’s Children Need a Professional Early Childhood Education” highlighted in the Windsor Star and what is Canada doing to respond to them

• The Government of Canada is committed to working with the provinces and territories to put early childhood educators at the heart of the Canada-wide system.

• Our transformative investment of over $27 billion to build a Canada-wide system is in addition to the $420 million provided to provinces and territories in 2021–2022 to attract and retain early childhood educators.

• Every Canada-wide Agreement includes commitments to increase supports for the early childhood education workforce.

IF PRESSED:
• This report reflects the state of the early childhood educator workforce prior to the Government of Canada’s investments in this sector.

The 2020 Fall Economic Statement announced key early investments to lay the groundwork for a Canada-wide child care system, in partnership with provinces, territories and Indigenous peoples. This includes investments to establish a federal secretariat on early learning and child care; supporting the existing federal Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Secretariat; making the early learning and child care funding announced in Budget 2017 permanent at 2027-2028 levels; providing $420 million in 2021-2022 for the provinces and territories to support the attraction and retention of early childhood educators; and an additional $75 million in 2021-2022 to improve the quality and accessibility of Indigenous child care programs.

Building on investments announced in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment of over $27 billion over five years, as part of Budget 2021 to build a Canada-wide early learning and Child Care system with provinces and territories. Combined with other investments including in Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care, up to $30 billion over five years will be provided in support of early learning and child care. Adding previous investments announced since 2015, this means that as of 2025-2026, a minimum of $9.2 billion will be provided every year – permanently – for Early Learning and Child Care and Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care.

The Government of Canada is making a transformative investment to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system in partnership with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners. The goal is to bring fees for regulated child care down to $10-a-day on average within the next five years. By the end of 2022, the Government is aiming to reduce average fees for regulated early learning and child care by 50 per cent to make it more affordable for families. These targets apply everywhere outside of Quebec which already has an affordable, well-established system, and Yukon which has already achieved a $10-a-day system.

The Government of Canada has signed agreements with every province and territory to deliver a Canada-wide ELCC system. Nearly all of Canada’s provinces and territories have announced initial child care fee reductions to support the affordability goal of the Canada-wide ELCC system. Canada has signed an asymmetrical agreement with Quebec, where prices are already affordable through its well-established system.

To support the implementation of the Canada-wide ELCC system, Budget 2022 has proposed infrastructure funding to enable provinces and territories to make additional child care investments, including the building of new facilities. Budget 2022 proposes to provide $625 million over four years, beginning in 2023-24, for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. The new infrastructure funding will also be part of an asymmetrical agreement with Quebec to further enhance its child care system.

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