Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act (S.C. 2024, c. 2)

Marginal note:Guiding principles

• 7 (1) Federal investments respecting the establishment and maintenance of a Canada-wide early learning and child care system — as well as the efforts to enter into related agreements with the provinces and Indigenous peoples — must be guided by the principles by which early learning and child care programs and services should be accessible, affordable, inclusive and of high quality and must, therefore, aim to

  • (a) support the provision of, and facilitate equitable access to, high-quality early learning and child care programs and services — in particular those that are provided by public and not for profit child care providers — that meet standards set by provincial governments or Indigenous governing bodies, that are reflective of other evidence-based best practices in high-quality service provision and that respond to the varying needs of children and families;

  • (b) enable families of all income levels, including low incomes, to benefit from affordable early learning and child care programs and services;

  • (c) support the provision, including in rural and remote communities, of early learning and child care programs and services that are inclusive of children from systematically marginalized groups, including children with disabilities, and of children from English and French linguistic minority communities, that respect and value the diversity of all children and families and that respond to their varying needs; and

  • (d) support the provision of high-quality early learning and child care programs and services that foster the social, emotional, physical and cognitive development of young children, including through the recruitment and retention of a qualified and well-supported early childhood education workforce, recognizing that working conditions affect the provision of those programs and services.

• Marginal note:Other guiding principles — Indigenous peoples

  (2) Federal investments in respect of early learning and child care programs and services for Indigenous peoples — as well as the efforts to enter into related agreements with Indigenous peoples — must be guided by the principles set out in the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework, in addition to the principles set out in subsection (1).

• Marginal note:Commitments re Official Languages Act

  (3) Federal investments in respect of early learning and child care programs and services subject to an agreement entered into with a province must be guided by the commitments set out in the Official Languages Act, in addition to the principles set out in subsection (1).