Federal and provincial governments have embarked on a major undertaking to build systems of early learning and child care across Canada that meet high standards for quality, affordability, accessibility, inclusion, and flexibility. The success of this plan—the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Care (CWELCC) initiative—will depend partly on whether changes to early learning and care meet the needs and expectations of parents. To learn about parents’ views, the Alberta Parent Survey on Early Learning and Child Care was conducted in 2022 with over 1400 parents in Alberta with young children. The present report, one in a series based on this survey, is focused on affordability. Parents’ Views About the Affordability of Early Learning and Child Care in Alberta includes detailed findings and recommendations for optimizing the way in which the CWELCC is implemented in Alberta.

This report contains a snapshot of the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care’s work and associated impacts between September 2022 and August 2023. It provides context to understand the significance of the ECELC’s advocacy and policy initiatives and demonstrates how they contributed to EPE’s focus area of rigorous research and analysis, high-trust relationships, and policy thought leadership. This report also provides the City of Edmonton a transparent look at the Council's work over the past year and describes its future plans.

In January 2021, we launched the Journeys Project. The Journeys Project is a collaboration between the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative, the Community-University Partnership and the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care. The aim of the project was to gather rich firsthand accounts of the experiences of ethnocultural parents with young children (birth to 5 years old) in early learning and childcare (ELCC) in Edmonton. The Journeys Project drew on the cultural brokering practice and intercultural expertise of the MCHB. We engaged 30 parents from 6 ethnocultural communities: Kurdish-speaking, Eritrean and Ethiopian, Bhutanese Filipino, Spanish-speaking, and Chinese-speaking.

In this brief, Rob Buschmann, Miranda Brown, and Gordon Cleveland provide an overview and analysis of the two major federal early learning and child care plans (Liberal and Conservative) and analyze their effects on early learning and child care affordability for an example family in Calgary. Both the Liberal and Conservative plans would help, but the Liberal plan would make early learning and child care considerably more affordable for the example family at all levels of income.

The Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care recommends 13 actions that can be taken by Alberta Children’s Services and that will support many families, contribute to economic and social recovery from the COVID pandemic, and help to address some of the critical priorities of EndPovertyEdmonton.

In this brief, Rob Buschmann provides an overview and analysis of the September 2021 changes to Alberta's child care subsidies.

The Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care has identified 10 recommended actions that can be taken by the City of Edmonton in support of early learning and care.

The Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care recommends 5 actions that can be taken by School Boards and that will support many families, contribute to economic and social recovery from the COVID pandemic, and help to address some critical educational priorities.

The Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care recommends 10 actions that can be taken by the City of Edmonton and that will support many families, contribute to economic and social recovery from the COVID pandemic, and help to address some critical municipal priorities.

Authors Chelsea Freeborn, MEd., Alvina Mardhani-Bayne, PhD., and Cheyanne Soetaert provide an overview of the joint research between Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care (ECELC) and MacEwan University and findings.

Authors Chelsea Freeborn, MEd., Alvina Mardhani-Bayne, PhD., and Cheyanne Soetaert conducted case studies with child care directors and senior staff to ascertain how support for Indigenous and newcomer families can be realized in Edmonton child care contexts.

Authors Chelsea Freeborn, MEd., Alvina Mardhani-Bayne, PhD., and Cheyanne Soetaert using the information from a scoping review of current academic literature to identified existing understandings of indicators of quality and desirable educator dispositions created guiding questions for focus groups made up of educators who support newcomer families.

Authors Chelsea Freeborn, MEd., Alvina Mardhani-Bayne, PhD., and Cheyanne Soetaert using information from a scoping review of current academic literature to identified existing understandings of indicators of quality and desirable educator dispositions created guiding questions for focus groups made up of Indigenous families and educators who support Indigenous families.

Newcomer Consultations on the Context of Early Learning and Care in Edmonton (2019) was compiled for the ECELC by the Multicultural Family Resource Society