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The province will consult Nova Scotians on a new early years strategy. As part of the initiative, the government released a discussion paper and has appointed a nine-member advisory council.

The Department of Education, along with the departments of Child, Youth and Family Services and Health and Community Services launched The Power of Play, "a multi-media promotional campaign designed to highlight and encourage play-based learning."

Excerpt: "Amendments have been proposed to the unproclaimed Early Learning and Childcare Act to establish a single piece of legislation called the Early Childhood Services Act. The new act would combine all early childhood programs and services such as preschool autism intervention, prenatal support, early learning and childcare, and early intervention.... Changes to the section of the act detailing curriculum frameworks are proposed so that licensed childcare facilities use only one of the two frameworks provided by the department."

Excerpt: "The allocation is based on the 2012-13 provincial budget which provided $2 million to develop 500 new child care spaces across Saskatchewan, and an additional $4 million to cover the capital costs of those new spaces."

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador "has entered into a partnership with the Margaret & Wallace McCain Family Foundation and the Jimmy Pratt Foundation to study innovative ways in which to integrate early childhood learning programs in Newfoundland and Labrador with a view to enabling the smoothest possible transition to school."

Budget 2012 includes new funds for child care for 2012-13, "doubling its investment by 2021-22 to approximately $56 million per year under a new 10-Year Child Care Strategy."

The Department of Child, Youth and Family Services announced "$2 million for the second year of the Family Child Care Initiative.... This two-year pilot project is making great strides in the development of regulated child care spaces throughout the province with an emphasis on spaces for infants up to 24 months of age."

Held on April 11, 2012.

Event was held on April 11, 2012.

The Government of Manitoba announces "new funding to child-care centres for 900 spaces, new capital and operational funding for child-care centres and homes, and improved subsidies for those most in need, Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard announced today…. Now in its fourth year, Family Choices, Manitoba’s five-year early learning and child-care initiative, is providing new funding for 6,500 quality child-care spaces by the end of 2013."

Excerpt: "Ontario Budget 2012 makes no overt changes to early learning. Full day kindergarten moves forward as planned to embrace all children by 2014. Its unique educator team remains intact. The Government should be commended for rejecting the narrow mindedness of Drummond’s recommendations. The back-story however has some twists. A $75-million reduction in education capital grants will crash into the need to build or refurbish classrooms in schools where there is no space for the remaining influx of 100,000 children during the final phase of the rollout. Most early childhood educators in kindergarten classrooms do not yet work under a collective agreement. Public sector wage controls leaves them, and new all ECE entrants, immobilized at the starting gate...."

Excerpt: "A new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is currently in development to replace the existing DSMV-IV. One of the changes proposed is in the diagnostic criteria for autism and related conditions.... The risk with the change in the definition of ASD is that some families will no longer be recognized as having rights associated with disability categories. All Ontarians have the right to accommodation on the basis of disability and a diagnosis allows parents to more readily claim these rights. As an example, one of the most common reasons for children to be asked to leave an ECE setting is because of their behaviours. If a child has a diagnosis of autism, the parents can use this diagnosis as leverage to get supports rather than being excluded from the service."