The following statement was read in the House of Assembly today by the Honourable Krista Lynn Howell, Minister of Education:

Speaker, I rise in this Honourable House to recognize the work happening throughout Newfoundland and Labrador to improve access to high-quality and affordable child care.

On January 1, three years ahead of schedule, we implemented $10-a-day early learning and child care for children of all age groups. According to a report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, this has decreased the cost of regulated early learning and child care by almost 70 per cent for pre-school aged children, and almost 80 per cent for infants.

We are also focused on increasing access to early learning and child care through space creation initiatives, as well as the recruitment and retention of early childhood educators.

We recently announced $7.5 million to support infrastructure and renovations to regulated child care services availing of the operating grant program. We also increased funding for projects operating under the Child Care Capacity Initiative program, which includes an hourly wage increase to $25 per hour for developmental workers.

Our efforts are working. We have created close to 1,100 early learning and child care spaces this year, and there are currently close to 8,400 child care spaces operating at $10-a-day or lower in the province.

Recently we launched our child care demand portal to help us assess and understand current demand and to continue our efforts and I encourage all families seeking child care to visit the site.

Speaker, our government will continue to work so that all families throughout the province are able to access the early learning and child care services that they need.