Tracking Government Progress

How can the public track what governments are doing with respect to early childhood development programs and services?

As part of this agreement, governments¹  have agreed to report annually on their progress in improving access to affordable, quality early learning and child care programs and services beginning in November 2004. Specifically, governments will report on:

• Descriptive and expenditure information on all early learning and child care programs and services;
• Indicators of availability, such as number of spaces in early learning and child care settings broken down by age of children and type of setting;
• Indicators of affordability, such as number of children receiving subsidies, income and social eligibility for fee subsidies, and maximum subsidy by age of child; and
• Indicators of quality, such as training requirements, child/caregiver rations and group size, where available.

Click on the links to the left of this screen to see the reports on early learning and child care activities and expenditures from each jurisdiction.

¹ While the Government of Québec supports the general principles of the Early Childhood Development Agreement and the Multilateral Framework on Early Learning and Child Care, it did not participate in developing these initiatives because it intends to preserve its sole responsibility on social matters. However, Quebec receives its share of federal funding and the Government of Québec is making major investments toward programs and services for families and children.