Canadian business leaders and philanthropists support quality early childhood education
Twenty-two prominent Canadians have signed an open letter [PDF], calling for support of quality childcare.
The letter, which can be found on the accompanying website, highlights how quality early childhood education benefits children:
- Stimulates a child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development
- Develops skills for school readiness
It also outlines how quality childcare helps the broader community:
- Greater stability and reduced social inequality for families
- Increases workforce participation, particularly for women
- Increases employee retention and satisfaction
The Canadians who signed the letter include some donors of B2ten, the non-profit that created and funds Active for Life. B2ten was founded in 2006, after a successful effort by ski coach Dominick Gauthier and businessman JD Miller to help Jennifer Heil win a gold medal at the 2006 Olympics. Over the years, B2ten has supported a long list of Canadian athletes by helping them create an optimal training scenario.
In 2012, activeforlife.com (AfL) was created to equip parents and educators with free resources and training to help children build active play habits and manage their screen time.
In 2025, AfL launched Learn Through Active Play (LTAP), a free professional development program for early childhood educators (ECEs) in childcare centres and post-secondary institutions across Canada. The training helps ECEs integrate active play into their daily programming. To date, LTAP has reached ECEs in more than 1,000 childcare centres and post-secondary institutions that train future ECEs.
Active play is good for children’s mental, physical, and social health. LTAP gives educators the tools and knowledge to support active play.
It’s because of the wide-ranging benefits of active play for children, their families, the wider community, and the economy that Canadian business leaders and philanthropists have signed the open letter.
The leaders call upon others to support high-quality childcare, calling it a “nation-building investment in Canada’s future.”
