New legislation introduced on Thursday, March 11, 2021, will freeze child-care fees for the next three years to help support economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Families Minister Rochelle Squires.

Bill 47 introduces an early learning program that supports children’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive development. The bill would formally introduce this concept into legislation, and clarify what is meant by child care and early learning services to support more flexibility within the sector and an increased focus on early learning.

“Bill 47, the early learning and child-care act, would create more equity in the system and expand supports that better meet the diverse needs of families, especially those most in need of early learning and child-care services,” said Squires.

According to Squires there are five basic principles that must be taken into consideration when making decisions under the act including:

• early learning and child-care services should ensure the health, safety, development and well-being of children;
• access to early learning and child-care services should enhance the economic opportunities available to parents;
• early learning and child-care services should be available on a continuum that is responsive to the diverse needs of families;
• promoting inclusion and respect, and accommodating diversity should be inherent in early learning and child-care services; and
• public funding should promote fiscal responsibility and the sustainability of early learning and child-care services.

Under the new legislation other early learning and child-care providers currently not licensed by the province would be eligible for licensing to enable more options for services. Licensed child-care facilities would be required to provide approved early learning programming to pre-school children.

The bill also allows for more part-time and extended-hours options for those who work or participate in education or training in the evenings.

The certification process for early learning and child-care providers would be streamlined to help qualified staff get into the workforce faster.

The minister noted that some of the provisions in the new bill align with recommendations in the Early Learning and Child Care Transformation report by KPMG. The report was commissioned in 2020 and the province has committed to release it in full within the next 30 days.

© News4.ca 2021