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N.S. to create 1,000 new child-care spaces [CA-NS]

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Author: 
CBC News Online
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Article
Publication Date: 
8 May 2006
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The Nova Scotia government is planning to spend more than $130 million to create 1,000 more licensed day-care spaces over the next 10 years.

The Early Learning and Child Care Plan was announced Monday by Community Services Minister David Morse at the Leeds Street Child Care Centre in Halifax.
Morse says existing funding will cover the plan for the first five years. The province will start contributing new money in 2011.

Besides providing child-care spaces, the plan will increase the number of infant-care spaces by about 200.

According to the release, the plan will also:

- Increase spaces for children with special needs to eight per cent from about four per cent, which amounts to about 530 spaces.

- Provide funding to develop online learning opportunities to offer early childhood educators in rural and remote communities the same access to early childhood development programs as those in urban settings.

- Keep parents better informed and streamline processes by making information such as subsidy application forms and user-friendly child-development material accessible on the department's website.

The original plan, proposed by the former federal Liberals, would have allowed the province to create twice as many day-care spaces.

- reprinted from CBC News Online