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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."

Presented by Jane Bertrand, Adjunct Faculty OISE, and Program Director, Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation, November 11, 2016, via webinar.

Presented by Kerry McCuaig, Atkinson Centre Fellow In Early Childhood Policy, November 3, 2016 to the BC District Principals of Aboriginal Education, Richmond, BC.

Explore EDI vulnerability rates & trends for BC kids via our new interactive EDI BC 2016 Provincial Report.

Excerpt: "Across all eight communities participants expressed dissatisfaction with low wages, which they felt did not reflect their level of training or experience in the sector. The majority of participants believed that in order to recruit and retain RECEs, the starting wage should be set at $20 per hour or be equal to the starting wage of Designated Early Childhood Educators (DECEs) working in FDK programs. For example, a participant from Peel stated, “As educators, we set the foundation for children and deserve equal pay to teachers.” The AECEO’s regional wage scale discussion paper suggests using the wages and benefits currently paid by municipal programs and other unionized environments as a benchmark for wage scales in the province (AECEO, 2015). Higher salaries and better benefits paid by school boards have lead many RECEs to leave positions in licensed child care to pursue careers in FDK, resulting in a recruitment and retention strain in licensed child care. Discussions about wages and benefits in FDK vs licensed child care led a number of participants to acknowledge feeling divided as a workforce."

Presented by Kerry McCuaig, Atkinson Centre Fellow In Early Childhood Policy, October 21, 2016 to the Flex PhD Cohort, OISE, Toronto, ON.

Presented by Kerry McCuaig, Atkinson Centre Fellow In Early Childhood Policy, October 12, 2016, Montreal, Quebec.