{"id":6393,"date":"2024-02-22T14:56:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T17:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/?p=6393"},"modified":"2024-02-22T14:56:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T17:56:40","slug":"province-to-invest-9-7-million-in-child-care-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/2024\/02\/22\/province-to-invest-9-7-million-in-child-care-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Province to Invest 9.7 Million in Child Care Programs."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Nova Scotia families will no longer be faced with wait-list or registration fees to attend provincially licensed and funded early learning and child-care programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under 2024-25 child-care operator funding agreements, the Department is banning wait-list and registration fees, which conflict with the government\u2019s commitment to family-centred practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are transforming Nova Scotia\u2019s child-care system and part of that transformation is ensuring we build family-centred practices,\u201d said Becky Druhan, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development. \u201cIn the fall, I promised to end the practice of wait-list fees as part of our commitment to inclusive, accessible and affordable child care for families. I am very happy to say these extra fees will no longer be something parents have to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The updated agreements will also include a one-time grant to offset rising operating costs for provincially licensed and funded child-care providers and for those delivering the Nova Scotia Before and After Program. These grants represent a total investment of $9.7 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new operator funding agreements, funded in part by the Canada\u2013Nova Scotia Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, will take effect on April 1 and also include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>additional funding to reflect minimum wage increases for entry-level, non-ECE (early childhood educator) staff<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>increased funding for ECE wage increases, and for group benefits and a defined benefits pension plan for all staff working in provincially licensed and funded child care, announced in December 2023<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>a requirement for operators to have property insurance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Quotes:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to commend Nova Scotia for its incredible work on improving access to high-quality regulated child care in the province by supporting its early learning and child-care workforce and regulated child-care providers, and by making wait-list and registration fees a thing of the past for parents. I look forward to our continued collaboration with Nova Scotia so every family in the province, and across Canada, has access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care.\u201d<br>\u2014&nbsp;<em>Jenna Sudds, federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Quick Facts:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ECEs working in provincially licensed and funded child-care centres and family home agencies will receive hourly wage increases of between $3.14 and $4.24 starting April 1; child-care employers will start to enroll in group benefits and pension plans in May<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>since 2022, parents in Nova Scotia have paid an average of 50 per cent less for child care, with work underway to achieve an average cost of $10 per day by March 31, 2026, as part of the Canada\u2013Nova Scotia Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>more than 3,800 child-care spaces have been created across the province since 2021<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nova Scotia increased its investment in early learning and child care by $83 million, for a total investment of $277 million, in 2023<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the Government of Canada is contributing $605 million over five years in addition to more than $69 million through the Canada\u2013Nova Scotia Early Learning Child Care Extension Agreement \u2013 2021 to 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source : Provincial Release <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nova Scotia families will no longer be faced with wait-list or registration fees to attend provincially licensed and funded early<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,12,13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-general","category-latest","category-news","category-top-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6395,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions\/6395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}