Good morning, honourable Chair and committee members.
I'm honoured to be calling in from the land that I live, work and grow on, which is the unsurrendered traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish nations.
Through our obligations, ECEBC is compelled to think deeply, to listen with intention and to act ethically with commitments through the following lenses: the B.C. early learning framework, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, the ECEBC code of ethics, the indigenous early learning and child care framework, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Since 2011, ECEBC and our partner, the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., have been championing our own provincial $10-a-day child care plan. This plan advocates for a public child care system that addresses affordability, accessibility and quality, and we are heartened to see the success of the $10-a-day child care plan growing throughout Canada.
The essential factor for a quality system that supports children, families and communities is the early childhood educator profession. ECE in Canada is commonly perceived as a service for working parents rather than “a public good, of great social, cultural and political importance.” When early childhood education is understood and operated as a commodity to be purchased by consumers in a competitive market—