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Excerpt: "The early learning and child care infrastructure investment will support the creation of new child care spaces when and where families need it. This will be done by ensuring that the allocation of the early learning and child care infrastructure funding prioritize diverse NWT community settings and those that are in higher need of child care. Additional interrelated priorities include: communities where families face barriers to accessing licensed child care programs; communities where there are no existing early learning and child care facilities, especially for children birth to age 3; access and inclusion for families who identify as vulnerable, equity seeking, and those with children with developmental needs. This priority includes existing facilities that require infrastructure updates to meet the demands of children with developmental needs."

Excerpt: "The Government of Northwest Territories is committed to supporting an early learning and child care system that provides children and families with access to high-quality early learning and child care across the Northwest Territories. The 2030 Early Learning and Child Care Strategy and the Canada – Northwest Territories Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement provides the Government of the Northwest Territories with goals for improving the quality, affordability, accessibility and inclusivity of early learning and child care in the Northwest Territories and shares the long-term vision for a Canada-wide early learning child care system as set out in the Government of Canada’s Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework and Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework. Like the rest of Canada, families in the Northwest Territories face challenges in finding child care spaces for their children. For instance, as of February 2024, there were 14 communities in the territory without licensed early learning and child care. To help address the shortage of child care spaces, in May 2024, the Government of Canada and Government of the Northwest Territories announced that the territory would receive approximately $10 million over the next four years. In addition, the Government of the Northwest Territories invests $1,000,000 annually in infrastructure projects through the Early Learning and Childhood Infrastructure Fund."

Excerpt: "The Northwest Territories (NWT) Early Learning Framework has been inspired and adapted, with permission, from British Columbia's Early Learning Framework (2019), which aligns with our vision of supporting a child-centred, culturally responsive, and inclusive approach to early learning and child care. In addition, early learning frameworks across Canada and other countries were reviewed and guided our work, particularly: New Brunswick Curriculum Framework for Early Learning and Child Care (2008); Capable, Confident, and Curious: Nova Scotia’s Early Learning Curriculum Framework (2018); Nunavut Early Learning and Child Care Quality Framework (2023); How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years (2014); Flight Alberta’s Early Learning and Care Framework (2014); Belonging, Being & Becoming The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (2022); Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa New Zealand's Early Learning Curriculum (2017). While these documents provide a foundation, the NWT Early Learning Framework (framework) is meant to reflect the unique needs, values and cultures of educators, children, families, and communities of the NWT. The framework is meant to build on the valuable work already established in supporting the care and teaching of young children in the NWT, while intending to leave space for future direction."

Excerpt: "June 4, 2025, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) released the first edition of the Early Learning Framework. The Early Learning Framework is a resource for educators in early learning and child care programs to support them in their work. The framework reflects the vision and values outlined in the 2030 Early Learning and Child Care Strategy. It is intended to build on the valuable work already established in supporting the care and teaching of young children across the NWT, while also leaving space for future growth and direction. The first edition of the framework is designed to support a shared understanding for creating positive and nurturing early years experiences for children. It offers a common language to inspire meaningful communication between children, families, broader community, educators, and other early years services. It does not suggest a one-size-fits-all model for early learning and child care. Instead, it presents a set of broad principles centered on supporting the diverse needs of children, families, programs, and communities."

Excerpt: " The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) implemented today an increase of $3.5 million in Dedicated Wage Funding and a permanent increase of $664,000 in Flexible Funding to support the Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Sector. The Dedicated Wage Funding is intended to increase wages to early childhood educators working in licensed centre-based early learning and child care facilities. This funding represents a significant increase to the wage grid and increases the minimum that all early childhood educators in centre-based facilities must be paid by approximately $9/hour."

Excerpt: "This budget proposes $10.5 million to make child care more affordable, helping parents participate more fully in the formal labour force. The Government of the Northwest Territories will continue to advocate to the federal government to increase compensation levels of early child care staff to align with education assistants in the K-12 system."

Excerpt: "As part of this agreement, the Government of Canada will invest $7.4 million over the next three years to enhance and expand the Territory’s existing Healthy Food for Learning program, providing enhanced programming to 8,615 kids across all 49 schools in the territory this year. Federal investments will be put toward purchasing new kitchen equipment and upgrading kitchens, hiring new staff dedicated to school food programming and coordination, increasing availability of traditional foods, and improving the nutritional value of meal options. Schools in the territories have taken a collaborative approach to building and addressing their school food programs needs by working together with local business partners, elders, educators and students."

Excerpt: "New reports on developmental inclusion practices and supports within Northwest Territories (NWT) early learning and child care settings are now available. Between June 2023 and July 2024, a third party was contracted to review current inclusion-related educational practices and supports available within licensed early learning and child care programs in the NWT. This review was informed through engagement and interviews with partners, including early childhood educators and identified organizations who provide inclusion supports to early learning and child care programs. The results of this engagement are included in the Review of Inclusive Education Practices in Early Learning and Child Care settings in the Northwest Territories – What We Heard. The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) also published a response to the findings of the What We Heard Report."

Excerpt: "Amendments to the Northwest Territories’ (NWT) Early Learning and Child Care Regulations came into effect November 14, 2024. The updated regulations introduce a wage grid and certification process for licensed centre-based staff. The wage grid establishes the minimum rate of hourly pay for employees based on the community they work in, the type of position they hold, years of experience, education, Indigenous knowledge, and Northern experience."

Excerpt: "The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) and the Northwest Territories Early Childhood Association (NWTECA) have agreed on terms of reference to guide their partnership to establish an early learning and child care system that provides quality programs and supports licensed family day homes and centre-based programs. The GNWT and the NWTECA hold regular meetings to discuss important matters affecting the sector. The goal of this agreement is to foster transparency between the GNWT, the NWTECA’s board, and its members to ensure that licensed program operators and early childhood educators fully understand changes to the sector and how they will be impacted."

Excerpt: "This annual report provides a snapshot of the state of the Northwest Territories (NWT) education system and provides crucial data to help the GNWT and education bodies address student needs and provide the supports and resources necessary for students to thrive. While there are some encouraging results identified in the 2022-2023 report, the GNWT recognizes that there is a lot of important work to do to improve student outcomes across the Northwest Territories. The GNWT is committed to collaborating with partners, including education bodies and Indigenous governments, to support students throughout their education."

Excerpt: "But more families need access to affordable child care. That’s why, today in Yellowknife, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, joined the Honourable Caitlin Cleveland, Northwest Territories’ Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, to announce $10.6 million over four years, with $7.8 million through 2025–2026, to help build more inclusive child care spaces across the Northwest Territories through the Government of Canada’s $625 million Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. This investment will help the Northwest Territories reach the shared goal of building 300 new child care spaces by 2026. Through this Fund, all provinces and territories will be able to make further investments in child care, so more families can save up to $14,300 on child care every year, per child."