News & Stories: Northwest Territories

Excerpt: "The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) is taking action to strengthen supports for Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 (JK-12) students following a comprehensive review of inclusive schooling. Inclusive schooling means ensuring each student can learn and succeed, with supports that reflect their individual needs. Between 2024 and 2026, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) reviewed how inclusive schooling is working across the NWT. The review confirmed what families and educators have been telling us: student needs are becoming more complex, while schools have increasingly relied on short-term federal funding that is not stable or predictable. The review made 11 recommendations to improve how supports are delivered. The GNWT has accepted all 11 and is moving forward with implementation."

Excerpt: "The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) and the Government of Canada announced today the creation of 355 net new child care spaces as of September 30, 2025. As part of the Canada-Northwest Territories Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement – 2021 to 2026, the territory committed to creating 300 spaces for children ages 0-5 years. These spaces support families and job creation in Northwest Territories’ (NWT) communities while allowing parents to return to work or school knowing their children are cared for in safe, licensed environments."

Excerpt: "The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) has released the Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education System Performance Measures Technical Report for the 2023-24 school year. The report provides an overview of how the NWT education system is performing and helps education leaders, families, and the GNWT focus on improving student outcomes and well-being. The 2023-24 report highlights areas of progress: The number of educators working in the NWT has grown steadily over the past two years; Students in Grades 9-10 increasingly report feeling accepted by their teachers; More high school graduates are choosing to pursue post-secondary education."

Excerpt: "The primary measure of success for the Strategy will be an increase in the number of licensed early learning and child care programs and spaces throughout the NWT over time. This information will be made available through annual reporting on the Canada-NWT Early Learning and Child Care Bilateral Agreement (2021-2025) and Action Plan (2021-22) and subsequent bilateral agreements, including the Canada-NWT Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement (2021-2026) and Action Plan (2021-2023). The results will also be included in ECE’s evaluation schedule for early learning and child care programs."

Excerpt: "The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) has released two new resources to support the planning and development of new licensed centre-based child care spaces across the territory. These resources are designed to assist current and prospective child care providers, including individuals, businesses, and organizations interested in entering the sector, as well as the contractors, developers, architects and consultants they may engage to build new facilities or renovate existing ones."

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."