BILL NO. 56

(as introduced)

1st Session, 64th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
70 Elizabeth II, 2021

 

Private Member's Bill

 

Affordable Child Care Accountability Act

 

The Honourable Derek Mombourquette
Sydney–Membertou

First Reading: October 26, 2021

Second Reading:

Third Reading:

 

An Act Respecting Accountability
for Affordable Child Care

Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:

1 This Act may be cited as the Affordable Child Care Accountability Act.

2 In this Act, "agreement" means the Canada-Nova Scotia Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement signed by the Governments of the Province and of Canada on July 13, 2021, to provide more affordable and accessible child care in the Province.

3 (1) The Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development shall, within six months of the coming into force of this Act, develop an action plan for the delivery of the agreement.

(2) The action plan must include regional targets, deliverables and time lines for the purpose of

(a) creating a new organization under the responsibility of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to manage the operations of all regulated child care in the Province;

(b) reducing out-of-pocket fees for early learning and child-care spaces for children under the age of six to 50% by the end of 2022;

(c) increasing the net number of regulated child-care spaces for children under the age of six to achieve a coverage rate of 59% by 2025-26;

(d) developing a compensation framework for early childhood educators working in not-for-profit, publicly funded child-care facilities to improve pay and benefits;

(e) increasing the percentage of child-care workers providing regulated childcare in the Province who meet child-care certification requirements to at least 60% and by at least 15 percentage points by 2025-26, whichever leads to a greater percentage;

(f) providing professional recognition for early childhood educators by introducing a regulated certification process;

(g) developing and funding a plan that increases inclusive child-care spaces in the Province, thereby ensuring diverse and vulnerable children and families–including children with a disability and children needing enhanced individual supports, Indigenous children, Black and other racialized children, children of newcomers and official language minorities–have access to child-care spaces equivalent to or greater than their share of the population;

(h) tracking the number of inclusive child-care spaces with inclusive programming dedicated to children from diverse and vulnerable families;

(i) providing free tuition and books for staff currently working in child care and pre-primary without a diploma, including providing designated seats in schools for Indigenous peoples, Black and African Nova Scotians, Acadian and francophone Nova Scotians and newcomers; and

(j) providing bursaries to students currently enrolled in full-time early childhood education diploma or degree programs in the Province, with more money going to students from equity-seeking groups.

4 The Minister shall table the action plan developed pursuant to Section 3 in the House of Assembly or, where the House is not then sitting, file it with the Clerk of the House.

 

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This page and its contents published by the Office of the Legislative Counsel, Nova Scotia House of Assembly, and © 2021 Crown in right of Nova Scotia. Created October 26, 2021. Send comments to legc.office@novascotia.ca.