Canadian Child Care Federation Applauds Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's Commitment to a Meaningful Child Care Plan for Real Canadian Families

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 31, 2011) - The Canadian Child Care Federation (CCCF) President, Don Giesbrecht, announced today that he welcomes Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's commitment to early learning and child care as part of the party's lifelong learning platform in this 2011 federal election.

"While the CCCF calls on all federal parties to commit to quality child care and recognize the realities of today's working families, we support the principles, the leadership and the accountability built in to this national early learning and child care plan," said CCCF President Don Giesbrecht. "And because families are struggling each day to find high-quality, affordable, inclusive early childhood education and care services across Canada, we like that the federal funding to the provinces and territories applied over the next four years would start immediately, upon their election."

Another much welcomed element announced in this Liberal Party plan is that it will incorporate a process whereby the provinces and territories will have the ability to exchange and share research and best practices--in other words, a national conversation on child care systems. The Government of Canada needs to take advantage of the vast early learning research we have and apply it to a pan-Canadian system.

Early learning and child care continues to be a public issue affecting millions of Canadian children and their families, yet our current public discourse on a national level fails to address the importance of children's safety, their positive development, or the needs of real Canadian families. The time has come to put children first by supporting families and investing where early learning research and good practice tell us will reap the most success: quality early learning and child care.

Canada's largest early learning and child care organization, CCCF is a federation of provincial/territorial organizations from across the country, representing 10,000 members – practitioners, academics, parents and policy makers. CCCF is committed to excellence in early learning and child care through best and promising practice, capacity building, and collaborations, networks and partnerships. For more information, visit www.qualitychildcarecanada.ca

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