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This report presents the findings of Year 2 of the four-year evaluation of the Nova Scotia Early Years Centre initiative, led by an evaluation team from Dalhousie University, research Power Incorporated, and Mount Saint Vincent University) and funded by the Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation. Key lessons learned and issues for further consideration are provided to support continuous program improvements at the local and provincial levels of the system.

Excerpt: "Ontario is investing in infrastructure and economic development in First Nation communities in Northern Ontario, to identify new business opportunities, boost economic growth and provide safe child care spaces."

Excerpt: "To increase accessibility of child care, $20 million of that investment in 2017-18 will support the creation of up to 2,000 new, additional, child care spaces. These spaces are in addition to government’s current goal of creating 13,000 new licensed child care spaces between 2014 and 2020, announced as part of the B.C. Early Years Strategy."

Excerpt: "As part of Ontario's commitment to supporting child care professionals, the program will receive ongoing, annual funding. This year, the province will provide: An ongoing wage enhancement, up to $2 per hour plus benefits, for eligible child care workers and home visitors in the licensed child care sector; An ongoing enhancement, up to $20 per day, for eligible home child care providers; A raise in the maximum hourly wage to be eligible for the wage enhancement - an increase of 1.5 per cent to $26.68 per hour. For home child care providers, the daily fees maximum will be $266.80 per day."

Excerpt: "Overall, the most common challenges experienced while on maternity or parental leave are regarding financial hardships, restrictions in the qualification criteria for those self-employed or on contract, and difficulties finding childcare. When asked about their challenges while being in maternity or parental leave, the most common challenges mentioned are related to finances, especially among those with single income families, twins, and multiple births; difficulties finding suitable and affordable childcare; and problems qualifying for EI benefits while being self-employed or working on contract."

Excerpt: "$1.5 million to help offset the costs of the junior kindergarten program as it is rolled out in all NWT communities for four-year old children and a commitment to spend an additional $2.7 million for schools before the end of the 18th Legislative Assembly to ensure that this critical program can be implemented in all communities."

Presented by Kerry McCuaig, Atkinson Centre Fellow In Early Childhood Policy; and Jane Bertrand, Adjunct Faculty OISE, and Program Director, Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation, January 20, 2017, St. John's, Newfoundland.

Excerpt: "What is needed now, for the early years and child care system, can be achieved in a gradual, orderly transition following from the innovative work that was set underway when your government created the public alternative to private delivery of early childhood education and care in Ontario for children ages four and five years. The reality is that more than one quarter of families in which parents are working or in school for 30 or more hours per week, have no regular child care arrangements. They resort to split shifts and weekend work which results in poorer work-life balance, reduced family time, and increased stress. And, of the children who are in a care arrangement full-time, more than one third are in informal care arrangements."

Scholarships can inspire students to believe they can make a difference. For Atik Bird, it helped her reach out to others – and trust her own voice.

Excerpt: "Investments in expanding both capacity and affordability must go hand-in-hand. Each municipality needs the flexibility to plan the right balance based on local circumstances between increasing access through capital and increasing access through operating/subsidy. Allowing for a phased approach provides the flexibility to change based on changing circumstances from year to year."

Excerpt: "Province Investing in 3,400 New Child Care Spaces and Launching Public Consultations."

Excerpt: "Each new child-care centre will receive up to $500,000 in operating funding in the first year, with the opportunity to receive two more years of funding. The locations of new child-care centres, targeted to where demand is greatest, will be announced early in 2017."