New funding available for before and after school programs

Licensed school-age child care centres will be able to access new funding to help them deliver before and after school programming for Island children.

To ensure Island families can continue to access affordable child care programming, the Province is investing $537,900 to support operational costs and encourage more organizations to offer school-age child care programs. The new funding will include a one-time stabilization grant for existing operators and a new licensing incentive grant for new operators.

“Our school age programs offer many Island children an environment where they can have positive emotional, intellectual and physical experiences as part of their overall development,” said Nathalie Nadeau, Executive Director of CHANCES. “This funding is welcome news as it will go a long way to help our centres continue to offer high quality programming across the Island.” 

The Province is identifying and analyzing the current and future pressures of the child care sector. This work will inform the development of a long-term framework for universal school-age child care programming as well as future provincial investments in this area. 

“We know that having access to affordable and reliable school-age child care across our province is critically important to Island families. Without it, many caregivers would not be able to fully participate in our workforce. That’s why these short-term supports are an important step forward to stabilize this sector while we look at sustainable, long-term solutions to serve our Island families and assure economic stability and growth for many generations to come.”

- Education and Early Years Minister Natalie Jameson

Media contact:
Vicki Tse
Department of Education and Early Years
vickitse@gov.pe.ca