ITK president praises Ottawa’s Indigenous early learning, child care plan

Money flowing from the new Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework will go to early learning and child care programs offered to Inuit children by groups such as the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre, attended by these young throat singers, who performed at the Sept. 10 Embrace Life event in Ottawa. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

A $1.7 billion amount earmarked over the next 10 years for Inuit, First Nations and Métis early learning and child care will improve “access to high-quality, appropriate and culturally-rooted early learning and child care,” says ITK Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

Obed attended the release of the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework in Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 17, along with representatives from the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council and the federal government.

The money, part of a $7.5 billion commitment for child care contained in the 2016 federal budget, will be used to strengthen early learning and child care programs and services for Indigenous children and families starting in 2018-19, the news release said.

According to a backgrounder, the framework will help create “a comprehensive and coordinated system led by Indigenous peoples with accessible, flexible and fully inclusive early learning and child care for all Indigenous children, families and communities regardless of where they live.”

The framework will cover First Nations and Inuit Child Care Initiative, administered by Employment and Social Development Canada, and the Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Northern Communities program, administered by the Public Health Agency of Canada.