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News & Stories: Policy Monitor

April 16, 2024

Excerpt: "Key Ongoing Actions: Providing over $25 billion in support to about 3.5 million families with children annually through the tax-free Canada Child Benefit, with eligible families receiving up to $7,787 per child in 2024-25; Building a Canada-wide system of early learning and child care, which is delivering $10-a-day child care in eight provinces and territories, with all other provinces already cutting fees by 50 per cent and remaining on track to deliver $10-a-day child care by March 2026, significantly ahead of schedule; Launching the Canada Dental Benefit to provide eligible parents or guardians with direct, up-front, tax-free payments of up to $1,300 over two years to cover the cost of dental care for their children under 12 years old."
April 17, 2024

Excerpt: "The Manitoba Prenatal Benefit is a monthly financial benefit to help low-income Manitobans meet their needs during pregnancy. This historic increase will make Manitoba鈥檚 benefit the highest in Canada. The current maximum benefit is $81.41 per month, payable from the 14th week of pregnancy until the child is born. Budget 2024 includes an additional $800,000 to double the maximum monthly benefit to $162.82, ensuring the prenatal benefit has a real impact in making life more affordable for expectant parents, noted the minister."
April 11, 2024

Excerpt: "The EYC Expansion Capital Grant provides financial assistance to create new licensed early learning and child care spaces, particularly for infant and/or toddler-aged children within new and existing facilities. This grant offers a maximum of $200,000 to facilitate new construction, renovations, and/or equipment purchases to help meet the urgent need for expanded spaces. The EYC Architectural Fee Reimbursement Grant offers funding for architectural fees to create new licensed early learning and child care spaces. This grant aims to alleviate financial barriers that hinder centres from expanding by reimbursing 80 per cent of the project's architecture fees to a maximum of $80,000."
April 11, 2024

Excerpt: "The Manitoba government has invested over $375,000 in capacity and programming improvement grants to support high-quality affordable child-care services in 34 facilities across the province, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Nello Altomare announced today."
April 10, 2024

Excerpt: "Island students are learning while outdoors and having fun at the same time thanks to more than 100 projects funded through new grants from the Department of Education and Early Years. The Outdoor Learning Grants are funding all sorts of outdoor activities, including day trips, conservation projects, outdoor classrooms and play spaces, weather stations, school gardens and more. The goal is to help kids learn important skills while providing meaningful outdoor learning opportunities that transcend traditional classroom settings. "We want every student to have the chance to explore nature and learn outside. With these grants, we want to help empower schools and teachers to create impactful outdoor learning experiences that inspire curiosity, foster environmental stewardship, and promote personal growth.""
April 2, 2024

Excerpt: "Budget 2024 supports working families by recognizing affordable and accessible child care as the backbone of a strong economy where everyone can participate. That鈥檚 why we are investing $15.9-million in new child-care spaces, as well increasing access to $10/day child care, and increasing funding support for child-care centres to increase salaries for early childhood educators."
April 2, 2024

Excerpt: "鈥淐hild care is expensive enough without fees adding up before families have secured child care,鈥 said Mitzi Dean, Minister of State for Child Care. 鈥淓liminating waitlist fees will mean that families no longer face having to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars simply to find a child care space. We鈥檙e supporting families with the cost of child care, and now that starts when families are looking for a spot.鈥 Approximately 5% of providers, mostly in metropolitan areas, were charging families a fee to put their name on a waitlist. Because most families looking for child care reach out to a number of providers, this was a significant cost. Waitlist fees, most of which are non-refundable, ranged from $25 to $200 or more."
April 1, 2024

Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced a new National School Food Program. With an investment of $1 billion over five years, the Program, included in Budget 2024, will launch with a target of providing meals to 400,000 more kids every year, beyond those served by existing school food programs. For moms and dads, it will mean the peace of mind that your kids are taken care of and do not go hungry. For kids, it will mean healthy meals 鈥 helping them learn, grow, and reach their full potential. This is a generational investment in the future of our kids, and we鈥檙e going to work with provinces and territories and Indigenous partners to ensure every child has the food they need. The Program will be a safety net for the kids who need this support the most. The lack of access to food disproportionately impacts children from lower-income families and from racialized and Indigenous communities. With this program, we鈥檙e getting healthy food on the plates of growing kids."
March 28, 2024

Excerpt: "The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced measures from the upcoming Budget 2024 to build more affordable child care spaces 鈥 saving more families thousands of dollars and helping more parents return to their careers. These measures include: Launching a new Child Care Expansion Loan Program. With $1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable grants, public and not-for-profit child care providers will be able to build new spaces and renovate their existing child care centres. This means more resources for child care providers and more affordable child care options for families; Offering student loan forgiveness for rural and remote early childhood educators. This will encourage educators to work in smaller communities and help families get the child care they need. With a $48 million investment over four years, student loan forgiveness will increase the longer an educator works in a rural or remote area, attracting and retaining the talent, similar to the programs we鈥檙e offering rural doctors and nurses; Increasing training for early childhood educators. We鈥檙e investing $10 million over two years to train more early childhood educators, building up the talent needed for the expansion of affordable, high-quality child care."
March 28, 2024

Excerpt: "More families in British Columbia will save thousands of dollars every year as more than 930 child care spaces move into the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program in March and April. This brings the total number of $10-a-day spaces in B.C. to more than 15,000. 鈥淎ffordable, $10-a-day child care that鈥檒l help families save thousands of dollars, help parents balance work with family and help kids get the best start to life. That鈥檚 what today鈥檚 announcement with B.C. is all about,鈥 said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 鈥淭ogether, we鈥檙e making sure families across the province get the quality child care they need without worrying about the cost.鈥"
March 26, 2024

Excerpt: "The government is committed to building modern schools by investing $23 billion, including approximately $16 billion in capital grants over 10 years, to build, expand and renew schools and child care spaces across Ontario. Since 2018, the government has supported nearly 300 school or child care-related projects, of which more than 100 are actively under construction. This includes $1.4 billion for the current school year to support the repair and renewal needs of schools."
February 29, 2024

Excerpt: "Growing Childcare Supports and Spaces - $4.3M - To improve access to childcare for families, continue the implementation of $10/day childcare and provide supports for operators to create more childcare spaces, with a commitment of 30 percent of new spaces for infants. This brings the total investment in reducing fees to $12.3 million."