Develop a National Early Learning and Child Care Framework with the provinces and territories.

What success looks like

More high-quality, affordable child care spaces.

Government's narrative on progress

The Government of Canada is investing in early learning and child care to help Canadian children get the best start in life. Through transfers to provinces and territories, it is supporting the creation of up to 40,000 affordable, high-quality child care spaces for low and modest income families by March 2020. The Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments reached a historic agreement on a Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework on June 12, 2017. The government has worked with each province and territory to enter into three-year bilateral agreements that will outline their unique early learning and child care needs to be addressed and the funding allocation for each jurisdiction. Bilateral agreements have now been signed with all jurisdictions. In addition to bilateral agreements with other levels of government, the government will also dedicate funding towards specific initiatives to support better outcomes for early learning and child care in Canada. Over the next 11 years, this includes: • $100 million for early learning and child care innovation, which will support new and innovative practices across the country and help to develop more effective services to improve life outcomes for children and their families. • $95 million to close data gaps in order to better understand what child care looks like in Canada, supporting strong reporting on progress made in implementing the Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework and the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework.

Note: this is the government's own description, not an independent assessment.