The following statement was read in the House of Assembly today by the Honourable John Haggie, Minister of Education:

Speaker, I stand today to reaffirm our commitment to providing low-cost early childhood education. Affordable child care is crucial to helping people, particularly women, enter or re-enter the workforce.

I am pleased to say that Newfoundland and Labrador is a national leader in progressively lowering the costs of child care, and this coming January we will move to a $10 a day system.

In May we announced more than 30 locations for a pilot Pre-Kindergarten early learning program that will open in 2022-23. The pilot will result in approximately 600 new regulated child care spaces. The first five locations are slated to open in November.

Overall, we have committed to creating nearly 6,000 new child care spaces.

We anticipate receiving the final report from the Early Childhood Education Human Resource Council in the near future. This will recommend a comprehensive compensation model for early childhood educators.  We have asked the council to recommend a wage grid that would reflect the education, training, and years of experience of early childhood educators.  Historically, these roles that have been undervalued and are traditionally held by women.

Early Childhood Educators are often the first point of contact for learning for our youngest population and, as such, their work is very important.

Speaker, I ask all honourable members to join me in celebrating the progress we are making in improving access to child care – actions that continue to advance the social and economic well-being of women and girls in our province.