Minister Jameson attends national meetings

Natalie Jameson, Minister of Education and Early Years, issued the following statement after representing Prince Edward Island at the national meetings for the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC) and the Ministers Most Responsible for Early Learning and Child Care:

“This week I had the pleasure of meeting with my Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) counterparts at both the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC) and the Ministers Most Responsible for Early Learning and Child Care. It has been a time of sharing, learning, collaboration and planning for the future.

The focus at both Ministerial tables was how to strengthen our systems to best support our children and youth.  Across the country, jurisdictions are facing challenges. These Ministerial tables allow us to discuss those challenges, share best practices and find ways we can work together.

One of the highlights of the CMEC meeting was the approval of the CMEC Strategic Plan 2023–27. We recognize that each province and territory respectively maintain exclusive jurisdiction over education, yet this plan will enable us to better cooperate on various challenges according to our individual priorities.

    

Indigenous Education was also a key focus of the meeting. This has been a priority in PEI for the past number of years, and I am so pleased that as a Council we were able to approve an Indigenous Education Plan for 2023–27, which responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action # 63.

For the second year, I had the honour of co-chairing the FPT meetings for the Ministers Most Responsible for Early Learning and Child Care. Prince Edward Island has been a leader in early years sector development. We continue to increase wages for staff, we are committed to reaching $10 per day child care, we are investing in operational grants, capital grants, retention grants and more. Even with all the progress we are making, we know that we can do more. 

As every jurisdiction strives to expand access to child care, every jurisdiction is also facing workforce challenges – and PEI is not exempt. The majority of our meeting focused on how we could best work together to enhance recruitment, retention and recognition for the early years workforce.  As such, we were pleased when all jurisdictions agreed to move forward on developing a Multilateral ECE Workforce Strategy. The Early Childhood Educators are truly the backbone of our early years system, and I am incredibly thankful for the dedicated and professional early years staff we have here in Prince Edward Island.These FPT meetings are a tremendous opportunity for collaboration. While we all have our own priorities, we recognize that by working together, we can achieve great things for Canadian children and youth.”

Media contact:

Autumn Tremere 

Department of Education and Early Years

agtremere@gov.pe.ca