Who can apply

This page explains:

• Eligibility
• How we assess your application

Eligibility

To apply, you must meet all the eligibility criteria found below.

Applicants

Your organization must be 1 of the following types and be located in Canada:

• Indigenous communities
• Indigenous governments
• Indigenous organizations

Note to organizations located and operating in the province Quebec:

Some applicants in the province of Quebec are subject to the Act respecting the Ministère du Conseil exécutif (R.S.Q. c. M-30) of the Government of Quebec. These applicants are eligible to submit a proposal. However, if we accept your project, you will also need to obtain the approval of the Government of Quebec before you can accept our funding.

Note to organizations with a status of a provincial entity located in the province of Alberta:

Organizations with a status of a provincial entity in the province of Alberta, including Government of Alberta departments and agencies, municipalities and public post-secondary institutions and school boards, are subject to the Provincial Priorities Act (SA 2024, c P-35.5) of the Government of Alberta. These applicants are eligible to submit a proposal. However, if we accept your project, you will also need to have your agreement reviewed, and in some cases, approved by the Government of Alberta before you can accept our funding.

Projects

Your project must meet all of the following criteria:

• last no longer than 36 months
• request no more than $2 million over the length of the project
• meet at least 1 program objective

Activities

For this funding initiative, eligible activities will seek to improve the quality of Indigenous ELCC programs and services.

Examples of eligible activities include, but are not limited to:

• testing new concepts or approaches for building, improving and/or maintaining quality early learning and child care within an Indigenous context
• supporting the design of new governance models to support Indigenous-led ELCC decision making
• creating and testing partnership approaches to support a coordinated and integrated system of IELCC programs and services
• developing strategies to measure outcomes and successes of IELCC programs including evaluation and results
• developing standards of quality IELCC to help with access, affordability, availability
• supporting culturally relevant and appropriate strategies and partnerships to build and promote a strong, qualified early childhood workforce
• developing approaches to help accredit staff from a linguistic and cultural lens
• developing and exploring innovative approaches to increase IELCC wages and resources comparable to provincial and territorial colleagues
• developing First Nations, Inuit and Métis standards, regulations and licensing grounded in Indigenous cultures and languages
• developing new programming or replicating and adapting an existing evidence-based program to a new ELCC setting, and,
• developing and testing a range of supports for children with diverse physical, psychological, and developmental abilities within an Indigenous child care context

Examples of ineligible activities include, but are not limited to:

• activities where the link to the program objectives is not clear
• normal activities of an organization
• construction, maintenance or repair of child care buildings

What the funding can be used to pay for

To be eligible, all costs must be reasonable and directly related to project activities and their development and implementation.

Eligible costs can include, but are not limited to:

• wages and employment-related costs for staff
• overhead costs, including costs related to central administrative functions of the recipient organization that are drawn upon to support agreement activities (such as postage, printing, telephones, IT maintenance and head office support)
• professional fees (for example, consultants, research, performance measurement, evaluation and reporting, translation and facilitation)
• utilities
• insurance
• rental of premises
• costs of project evaluations, assessments and reporting
• disability supports for staff of the recipient, and
• other costs that may be deemed eligible by ESDC

Ineligible costs include, but are not limited to:

• purchase of land or buildings
• costs related to planning, design, construction, maintenance or repair of Indigenous ELCC facilities
• equipment necessary for the operation of Indigenous ELCC facilities
• on-going operations or costs related to the direct service delivery of early learning and/or child care
• expenditures associated with supporting core operations that are not associated with the project (such as strategic and operational planning and wages, benefits and mandatory employment-related costs for staff, overhead and other costs that are not associated with the project)
• costs related to activities that are not directly linked to the project
• costs that fall within the responsibility of other levels of government
• costs incurred before the agreement is signed or Ministerial funding approval is granted, and
• other costs deemed ineligible as per IELCC program terms and conditions

How we assess your application

Applications that are incomplete or contain errors

We will contact you to request any mandatory information if it is missing from your application. We will do this before we determine if your application is eligible. If you receive such a request, you must respond within 5 business days of the date we sent the request. If you do not respond before the deadline, we may reject your application.

We will review your application in 3 steps by:

• Step 1: Screening for eligibility

  We will screen for eligibility based on whether the:

  • application is received by the deadline
  • application is complete
  • organization is eligible
  • project is eligible

  It is important to submit a complete application. We will assess your project only if all of the eligibility requirements are met.

  Things that may impact your eligibility

  Your past performance or issues of default in projects with ESDC may impact the eligibility of your application.

  When determining the eligibility of your application, ESDC may review information in the public domain including, but not limited to, materials on your website and media articles.

• Step 2: Assessing in relation to program objectives

  We will assess your application based on the following criteria:

  Organizational capacity

  • Your proposal shows that you have at least 2 years of prior experience working in Indigenous early learning and child care (IELCC) programs, services or research

  Project relevance

  • Your project objectives and goals are achievable and realistic
  • The project objectives support the program objectives

  Project activities

  • You have well defined and realistic activities
  • Your activities include milestones that correspond to your expected results
  • Your activities support the project goals and create something new, instead of continuing existing programming

  Project results

  • You show a clear link between the expected results and the project goals
  • The indicators you chose to measure your results are specific, relevant, time-based and targeted. You can measure them easily, and we expect that you can achieve them within the proposed time-frame

  Budget

  • You describe in detail how you will use the funds
  • Your costs are well reasoned and relate to the planned activities

• Step 3: Assessing other criteria to select a diverse range of projects to fund

  We will consider the following to select a diverse range of projects to fund:

  • additional considerations may be given to projects that have partnerships and specifically those with one or more of the following:
    • academic institutions
    • Indigenous organizations involved in labour market service delivery
  • project proposals may be prioritized based on geographical and sectoral representation