The provincial government is creating 603 new early learning and child care spaces by partnering with operators in 24 communities where the need is greatest under the Canada-New Brunswick Early Learning Child Care Agreement.

“We know there is a need for more high-quality, inclusive and affordable early learning and child care spaces,” said Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Bill Hogan.

“Creating new designated spaces will make a difference for New Brunswick families. We look forward to continuing to work with our early learning and child care sector on efforts to increase access to these critical services.”

The new spaces include 231 for infants (birth to 24 months) and 372 for preschool children (ages 2-5) and are broken down as follows:

• francophone spaces for infants: 66
• francophone spaces for preschool children: 61
• anglophone spaces for infants: 165
• anglophone spaces for preschool children: 311

The province launched a calls for proposals process in January but in making this announcement did not name the successful operators or their communities but did mention the spaces are almost evenly split between the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors.

Proposals for all types of facilities were considered and were required to include spaces for infants because the need was identified as a priority.

The province anticipates 397 of these new spaces will be open by September, with an additional 73 open by March 2024.

Including these new spaces, there will be 1,422 new designated early learning and child care spaces created in the province since September 2021 as part of the federal-provincial agreement.

To meet its obligations under the deal, the province is aiming to create 3,400 high quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive designated preschool early learning and child care spaces by March 2026.

More details about government’s space creation strategy are available online.