 It's a real pleasure to be here on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Sleba-toothed people to have what is the first of its kind, which is an early learning summit sponsored by the Ministry of Education. This is something we've never done before, and judging by the size of the room, it's something that was long, long overdue. And I think we have 225 people here registered from every part of the province to participate here today in exchange ideas. And indeed it is very exciting to get the kinds of experiences that people have in this room together under one roof, to have a conversation that's long overdue, to look at the government's initiatives over many fronts on expansion of childcare, and to see what more we can do. There are indeed partnerships that haven't even been formed yet right here in this room. There are best practices that we aren't aware of between each other. And when you get peers and committed, passionate people together like we're doing today, I think the future of early learning is in very good hands. So I want to thank all of you for taking the time to be here today. And I'm really, really pleased to be joined by my colleagues, the Minister of Children and Family Development, Katrina Conroy is here. You can clap for her. And my colleague, the Minister of State for Child Care, Katrina Chen is here. And they are part of our matrilineal-ish cabinet. Listen, one of the reasons that we're here is something that we've been talking about for a long time in the education system, a statistic, I suppose, but a reality that is very sad and stark. When children come into kindergarten for the first time, when they start their learning careers, they are assessed, of course, by professional teachers. And we know that in British Columbia for a long, long time, approximately a third, it goes up and down a few percentage points each and every year, but about a third of them score on the vulnerability index that we have established here in British Columbia on at least one or more vulnerability indexes. And what that, of course, means is that children in British Columbia, from the very first day they set foot in a school, are at a disadvantage to some of their peers. And that's why we're so focused on looking at how we can make that situation much, much better for many, many more families and kids in British Columbia. And we know that we're backed by very strong research. We'll hear a lot of that today about the benefits of aligning child care with the school system. We know it improves, for example, through academic research, a child's future academic success. We know it improves social outcomes. And we also know that it is critical to a high-performing, prosperous economy to have children doing their very best and succeeding in their school careers from the earliest age possible. So we'll hear today about the return on investment to the economy when early learning experiences are of high quality. And we'll hear that from Craig Alexander and other economists who will share their perspectives and their research on jurisdictions right around the world. And it is instructive for us here in British Columbia to make those arguments all throughout society as to why this is the best investment, not just in the fairness and the justice of helping children do well, but in the benefits that all of us get as a society and as an economy. Our government is committed to investing in child care. You've seen that. We have a billion-dollar plan, one of the very first budget items we introduced as a government was around improving quality, I should say, expanding spaces and increasing affordability to ensure that child care is accessible for families in British Columbia. The ministry will continue to offer successful programs that we have like Ready, Set, Learn and Strong Start BC. We're making sure that education professionals and parents and caregivers have the knowledge required to support kids as they move forward in their K to 12 studies to reach their full potential. And I'm really excited about the work that has been done around the early learning framework, something that very many of you in this room were a critically key part of helping government achieve. Of course, this document was originally published over 10 years ago now. It was groundbreaking at the time. It helped change early years practice in BC. It offered guidance and support to education professionals and families and caregivers who were involved in early learning programs at that time. But the newly revised framework establishes a vision that I think will, there's much more forward-looking for early care and learning in British Columbia. And of course, I think many of you have the document before you. It advocates for the importance of development and learning of young children, zero to eight years of age in learning environments, whether there's strong start BC programs or primary classrooms or childcare settings, preschools and other early childhood development and child health programs. And it guides early learning programs and activities and encourages discussions with families about their child's early learning and it shapes professional development in British Columbia. The framework was revised, of course, in response to the changes that we see in British Columbia, economic, social and cultural changes in our province that had, in a way, stale dated the previous iteration of the framework. Now we have new perspectives that are long overdue in the framework. New tools, new resources to help young learners be successful. And I have to say again, I'm grateful there were 600 early child care and education stakeholders, including the BC Teachers Federation, including members of the Early Learning Framework Advisory Committee, including Indigenous partners, the First Nations Education Steering Committee, Métis Nation BC, and the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society, who contributed tremendously to the development of the new framework. So thank you to each and every one of you who gave you your time and your expertise and knowledge to get that document completed. You deserve the recognition for it and because of your hard work, the framework is now aligned with the K to 12 education curriculum. It's now a focus on children zero to eight, not just zero to five, for the first time. And importantly, it aligns with government and Canada's obligation on reconciliation by integrating Indigenous perspectives and worldviews as well as critical principles of inclusion to support children with special needs throughout from the earliest age, right through their school careers. And the document supports professional learning for early learning professionals while expanding supports for families of young children. We're receiving already national and international attention for the framework. It's making a positive difference in the lives of our province's early learners. So today, in addition to discussing the framework, we're also going to be discussing and engaging with you to see what you think about our government's plan regarding new before and after school care options on school grounds throughout British Columbia. And I see a lot of my colleagues from administration and elected office at NBC 60 school districts here. This is part of government's movement towards a universal childcare system. And the ways that we're looking at providing more access to quality before and after school care that is affordable for families in British Columbia. So we're creating a policy framework that enables boards of education to operate before and after school directly or through a licensed partner that will protect spaces that are funded to provide childcare and supports partnership agreements to emerge with operators. If I can put it like this, it's time to move beyond childcare operators on school grounds of which we have a satellite and a constellation of wonderful operators in British Columbia. But it's time to move beyond this being a landlord-tenant relationship. And it's time to move this towards a complete education community in our school system. Now there are some other resources that I want to remind people of that are having an effect in British Columbia. We have a $2.7 billion capital plan over the next three years in the Ministry of Education. Shovels are literally in the ground on 76 projects now around British Columbia. This is historic. We are building a record pace schools and additions right across British Columbia. Many of these new buildings will have neighborhood learning centers and almost all of them dedicate that space towards early childhood education and childcare spaces. Hundreds of spaces are literally under construction right now with shovels in the ground. In addition, the Ministry of Children and Family Development has already created 1,100 seats in schools through their capital program fund with thousands more on the way in the plan that is before government. We know that it's important to have childcare on school grounds. Of course it's incredibly convenient for parents who have older siblings and their family can start the day the same way in the same place. We can eliminate long distances that are sometimes traveled for after school services, but we do want to make sure that we get this right. So before we scale up and expand before and after school programs, we want to hear from you, from school districts, from education partner groups and from childcare operators, about how we best do that. It's always best to avoid mistakes before they happen. And it's always best to seek wide counsel on what those best practices look like. So we're here to learn from one another, and certainly government is here to learn from you today, and it's a tremendous opportunity for me as the Minister of Education to learn more about what you think about the proposed partnership model. Now I'm also very pleased this morning to make a funding announcement around getting things started and scaling up the efforts around childcare services as they're connected to the school system. So this morning I'm very, very pleased to announce on behalf of Premier Horgan and on behalf of my colleagues that we're investing 1.28 million to support three early learning projects that will enable school districts to better support educators to help improve the social, emotional and learning outcomes for children from birth to age eight. And to support the implementation of the new BC Early Learning Framework, grants will go out to all public school districts to support early learning educators at Strongstart BC Centers and elementary schools to participate in early learning professional development activities. In addition, the funding is going to support district capacity building through two early learning programs. Grants will be distributed to 47 school districts participating in the changing results for young children and the 12 districts that are participating in the strengthening early years to kindergarten transitions programs. The United Way of the Lower Mainland will also receive a grant as part of its involvement in changing results for young children. That program sees school districts, local communities in the United Way partner to offer learning opportunities for education professionals to support social, emotional and learning outcomes for young kids in childcare and school settings. The strengthening early years to kindergarten transition program is focused on helping school districts develop guidelines, models and partnerships with their local communities to ensure kids and families experience smooth transitions from early years to kindergarten. Again, this is getting at the heart of the problem I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks. We can't forget about those kids who are showing up in school in kindergarten and are already falling behind on day one of their school careers and that's what this is about today is strengthening the partnerships to ensure that kids are supported to the best extent possible in a province like ours and that's what we want to talk to you about today. So thank you for your time, for your energy, for your dedication to high quality early learning in British Columbia and I look forward to the discussions today and thank all the presenters, some of whom have come a very long way indeed and have a great summit today. Thank you very much.