Early Childhood Education and Care 2021 (full publication)

We publish Early childhood education and care in Canada 2021 in what is known as downtown Toronto which is the land of the Anishinaabeg and the Haudenosaunee peoples, the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit. [...] We are also most appreciative of the contributions of the officials at the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Secretariat, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) who generously shared the data, contacts and clarification reflected in several sections of the report. [...] The next section in this report, How early learning and child care is organized in Canada: Roles and responsibilities, presents an overview of how early learning and child care is organized, financed and governed in Canada, taking note of the significant policy and program changes that are underway. [...] It set out the high-level details of the Trudeau government’s intention to build a Canada-wide child care system, building on recognition of the fragility of Canadian child care as exposed by the pandemic, 50 years of advocacy for universal child care, lessons from global and domestic (Quebec) ELCC developments, and the foundational steps taken under the Multilateral Framework prior to the child c. [...] With regard to the child care workforce, the federal budget stated that “with provincial and territorial partners, the government will work to ensure that early childhood educators are at the heart of the system, by valuing their work and providing them with the training and development opportunities needed to support their growth and the growth of a quality system of child care”.