Chiefs of Ontario Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) workshop report
The Chiefs of Ontario Education, Health and Social departments co-hosted a one day Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Dialogue session on September 26, 2005 in Toronto,Ontario. Approximately 80 individuals took part from across the Ontario region. Participation included First Nations professionals from the Health, Social, Education and AHRDA fields; government representatives from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), Human Resources Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Health Canada (HC). The purpose of the dialogue sessions was to bring together First Nation people to discuss and provide recommendations on the design of and transition to, an ELCC program for children in First Nations and Inuit communities.
Regional Perspective:
First Nations child daycare and child welfare services in Ontario (along with general welfare and homemakers’ services) are provided primarily under a federal/provincial cost-sharing arrangement known as the 1965 Indian Welfare Agreement.
The Ontario First Nations Chiefs had mandated a Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) to guide implementation of AHS when it became available to First Nations communities in 1998. Following the federal announcement of a First Nations/Aboriginal ECD Strategy in 2002, the Ontario leadership broadened the RAC mandate to reflect the wider ECD agenda including AHS and all federal/provincial initiatives targeting age 0 to 6. The RAC is made up of representatives from Health Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Aboriginal Health Office and the Chiefs of Ontario Health, Social and Education Coordination Units.
In FY 2002-03 the RAC conducted a regional mapping/environmental scan to lay the groundwork for an ECD Strategy that would reflect the needs of Ontario First Nations. It revealed that although the bulk of current ECD funding to Ontario First Nations is spent on licensed daycares and Brighter Futures projects, less than half of Ontario First Nations communities have daycare services. There are no ready sources of capital funding, and as noted, most Brighter Futures funding in Ontario First Nations goes to support programs for other age groups beyond 0 to 6.
Ontario First Nations leadership mandated the asset mapping process by resolution of the Chiefs-in-Assembly. The process was co-led and supported by Health Canada on behalf of the federal government departments. Asset mapping supported Ontario First Nations in defining ECD for themselves, examining current ECD activity and developing ECD Plans and additional activities building on existing community strengths. From July to November, 2004 a total of 102 First Nations across Ontario participated in the community-based asset mapping sessions In January 2005 representatives from an additional 16 Ontario First Nations engaged in asset mapping group sessions to support their ECD community planning, bringing the total number of participating communities to 118 (out of 134 First Nations in Ontario).
At the 2004 All Ontario Chiefs Conference resolutions 05-29 and 05-32 were passed by the Chiefs in Assembly. Resolution 05-29 (attachment A) states “in recognition of the principle of universal funding, support and approve the implementation of the Early Childhood Funding Allocation Formula for Early Childhood Development/Aboriginal Head Start (ECD/AHS) and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) for First Nation communities in Ontario.” Resolution 05-32 (See attachment B) resolved; that the Ontario First Nation Community Planning – Asset mapping process and the transition process for allocation must be maintained; those Aboriginal Human Resource Development Agreements handling Early Childhood funding shall be part of all meetings on these matters; that First Nation participation must be maintained through the Chiefs of Ontario, regionally and nationally, in the planning and development of the transition plan, which will include assessing the impacts of the single window approach and the design and development of an administration regime in preparation for the transition of the four programs under INAC; and that the four programs must increase program effectiveness, and must not result in a reduction of funding for First Nations.
All of the aforementioned documents have been reviewed in the development of this report.
Click here to read the entire report from the Chiefs of Ontario web site (Word Document)