Excerpts from the BRIEFing NOTE:

This BRIEFing NOTE presents a vision for what a universal early childhood education and care system in Canada might look like from the program to the policy level. It explores the potential for Canada to move from a patchwork of disjointed programs &em; many of them of mediocre quality &em;to a comprehensive high quality system and suggests changes that would put such a system in place.

This BRIEFing NOTE is adapted from the final chapter of a book by Martha Friendly and Susan Prentice, forthcoming from Fernwood Press.

An ECEC centre in 2020: Regina's Elsie Stapleford Children's Centre

It's 7:30 AM in 2020 in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Elsie Stapleford Children's Centre is just opening its doors when Martina arrives with four-year-old Sophie. After Sophie happily joins Nellie, her main teacher, and the few other children who have arrived, Martina goes to the resource room to borrow a book about nutrition before she leaves for her training program at 8:30. The resource room staff person isn't in yet but Martina will be able to talk with her by phone or in person later on. Before she leaves, she has a chance to seek Nellie's advice about Sophie's new habit of waking up several times a night. This has been a real problem for Martina, as she is a single mom who needs to be well-rested to do well in her college program in forestry management. Martina and Nellie discuss solutions as well as putting sleep issues on the next parent meeting agenda.