Charlottetown & St. John’s: The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Premier of Prince Edward Island, Dennis King, on Tuesday announced an agreement that will support an average of $10 a day early learning and child care in the province in three years.
PEI is on track to meet this target by the end of 2024, significantly reducing the price of child care for families.
Through the agreement, the governments of Canada and Prince Edward Island will work together to improve access to quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services.
This includes creating 452 new regulated early learning and child care spaces within two years to ensure all families of children under age six can access child care. The federal funding of nearly $121.3 million over the next five years also includes a one time investment of about $3.6 million in 2021-2022 to support the early childhood workforce.
On Wednesday, Trudeau travelled to St. John’s and signed a similar agreement with Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Andrew Furey, for an average parent fee of $10 a day for regulated child care spaces in the province in 2023, a year earlier than in Prince Edward Island.
With this funding, Prince Edward Island will see a 50 per cent reduction in average parent fees for children under age 6 in regulated child care by the end of 2022. This agreement will fund critical services, grow a strong and skilled workforce of early childhood educators through initiatives that focus on recruitment, retention, and supporting professional development, and deepen the development of innovative, flexible-hours child care for Island families that work shifts or non-standard hours.
The agreement with Newfoundland and Labrador signed at the North Atlantic College will also support critical services, including new infant, toddler, and preschool spaces and a new full day, year-round pre-kindergarten ELCC program for four-year-old children in 2023, with the goal that every one of these children in the province has access to prekindergarten by 2025-26, no matter where they live.
The pre-kindergarten program will be regulated and operated as a not-for-profit service. In addition, the agreement will grow a strong and skilled workforce of early childhood educators This includes creating 5,895 new regulated early learning and child care spaces within five years to ensure all families of children under age six can access child care.
The federal funding of over $347 million over the next five years also includes a one time investment of nearly $6.5 million in 2021-22 to support the early childhood workforce as well as over $34 million for the 2021-22 to 2024-25 Canada– Newfoundland ELCC Extension Agreement.
With this funding, Newfoundland and Labrador will see a reduction in average parent fees for children under the age of six in regulated child care from $25 a day to $15 a day in 2022, with further reduction to an average of $10 a day in 2023.
The agreement with PEI will also support an early learning and child care system that is fully inclusive of children with disabilities and children needing enhanced or individual supports, and ensure all families have equitable access to high-quality, affordable programming.
Trudeau said: “All families should have access to quality, affordable child care. That is why, from coast to coast to coast, we are laying the foundation for Canada’s first-ever Canada-wide early learning and child care system.”
Dennis King said: “Islanders can expect us to be bold and ambitious in meeting and exceeding the federal targets by achieving an average of $10 a day child care by the end of 2024. Prince Edward Island has been a national leader when it comes to early learning and child care.”
Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, said: “Ensuring all Canadians have access to highquality and affordable early learning and child care is feminist economic policy and smart economic policy. It is critical social infrastructure, over 50 years in the making, which will drive jobs and growth.”
Andrew Furey said: “Since the introduction of $25 per day child care this year, we have been at the forefront of affordable child care in this country, and we are thrilled to maintain our leadership position as one of the first provinces to announce plans for this important federal funding. Investments in early learning and child care are investments in our economy, and this plan will support affordability and access for all Newfoundland and Labrador families.”