Helping families in Canada to benefit from innovative early learning and child care practices

COCHRANE, AB, April 22, 2022 /CNW/ - The early learning and child care sector is evolving in increasingly complex and challenging environments. Identifying innovative practices and solutions that better meet the needs of children and families will improve early learning and child care for the benefit of families in Canada.

Today, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, announced funding to Active for Life, a division of B2ten, for their Building Capacity and Resilience Through Physical Literacy and Active Play project, which is being funded through the Early Learning and Child Care Innovation Program.

This project is receiving a total of $428,303 in federal funding over 24 months, starting in April 2022. The project will provide early childhood educators with the tools and resources they need to build resilience in children by providing active play opportunities for children in diverse communities across Canada, including racialized communities, Indigenous peoples, newcomers and those living in rural, remote and northern communities.

Since 2015, the Government of Canada has delivered real improvements to make life more affordable coast to coast to coast, including making a historic investment of $30 billion over five years to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system in collaboration with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners. By the end of 2022, child care fees will have been reduced by an average of 50%, and by the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year, the average child care fee for all regulated child care spaces across Canada will be $10 a day.

Quotes

"Innovative practices can help develop solutions that better meet the needs of children across Canada. Active play aims to reduce anxiety and stress and build resilience in children. By supporting early childhood educators who nurture our children, we are working toward ensuring that families have access to high-quality, flexible and inclusive child care so all children have the best possible start in life."
– Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould

"As experts tell us, active children are healthier and more resilient. With this grant, Active for Life will create and promote resources designed to build early childhood educators' capacity to provide daily physical active play opportunities for children."
– Richard Monette, Lead of the Active for Life initiative

Quick Facts

• The Early Learning and Child Care Innovation Program supports the exploration, testing and development of innovative approaches to support children and families' access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services across the country.
  
  
• The results of this project will contribute to a pool of knowledge and expertise, such as best practices, tools, models and approaches that will have the potential to be replicated, scaled and adapted in other communities and regions across Canada.
  
  
• Budgets 2016 and 2017 provided funding of $7.5 billion over 11 years for early learning and child care. Of this amount, $100 million is being dedicated to early learning and child care innovation.
  
  
• In response to requests from provinces and territories, and to support the implementation of the Canada-wide early learning and child care system, Budget 2022 proposes to provide $625 million over four years, beginning in the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. This funding will enable provinces and territories to make additional child care investments, including the building of new facilities.
  
  
• Investments in child care will benefit everyone across Canada. Studies show that for every dollar invested in early childhood education, the broader economy receives between $1.50 and $2.80 in return.

Associated Links

Early Learning and Child Care Innovation Program 
Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework
Budget 2022: A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable
Budget 2022: Supporting Early Learning and Child Care Backgrounder

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SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For media enquiries, please contact: Mohammad Hussain, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, [email protected]; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]