July 4, 2023 Vancouver, British Columbia Employment and Social Development Canada
The early learning and child care sector continues to evolve in increasingly complex and challenging environments. Identifying innovative practices and solutions that better address the essential needs of children, families, and early childhood educators (ECEs) is key to continuing to improve early learning and child care services across Canada.
Today, Parliamentary Secretary, Ya'ara Saks, on behalf of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, announced funding for two projects through the Early Learning and Child Care Innovation Program.
The University of British Columbia is receiving a total of $239,765 in federal funding over 24 months, effective January 2023, for their project titled Professional Development for ELCC Workers Through an Indigenous-ECE Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This project focuses on providing early childhood educators with professional development opportunities to receive training on incorporating Indigenous perspectives, worldviews and pedagogies into early learning and child care environments through the development of an online course. The goal is that by widely offering this free online training across Canada, more ECEs will have these critical skills. This means that more Indigenous families and children will have access to affordable, culturally appropriate early learning and child care.
The Government of Canada is also investing $241,105 over 24 months to support the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC's project, Exploring the provision of flexible child care within BC's new universal child care system project, effective March 1, 2023. This project will be conducting research by gathering knowledge, reviewing existing methodologies and tools, assessing child care operating models and reporting on the needs for flexible child care options as an innovative approach to better support families working non-standard hours in British Columbia. This research aims to address the real challenges that parents working non-standard hours face in finding and maintaining reliable, affordable child care that meets their needs. It will ensure that, as governments build their affordable child care systems, the needs of those parents are considered and built into the system from the start.
Building an inclusive Canada-wide early learning and child care system for children and families from diverse populations in every region of the country is a key part of the Government of Canada's plan to make life more affordable for families while also creating good jobs and growing the economy. The early childhood education workforce is critical to the success of a Canada-wide system and is key to Canada's economic prosperity.
