On September 11, 2000 Canada's First Ministers (except for Québec's) announced an agreement on early childhood development services. The Ministers identified two objectives for this initiative:
- to promote early childhood development, so that, to their fullest potential, children will be physically and emotionally healthy, safe and secure, ready to learn, and socially engaged and responsible
- to help children reach their potential and to help families support their children within strong communities.
The Ministers' statement defines four areas to be developed to meet these objectives:
1) healthy pregnancy, birth and infancy
2) parenting and family supports
3) early childhood development, learning and care
4) community supports
This ISSUE file links to documents regarding this important agreement. The first section presents links to documents from the federal government providing the policy context of the agreement. The next section provides responses and analyses of the agreement. The last section presents policy developments in the provinces since the initiative was announced.