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The B.C. Green party would extend the province’s education system to include preschool for three- and four-year-old children, party leader Andrew Weaver announced today.

“The economy is changing and so, too, must our education system,” Weaver said. “We have promised all along that education would be our top priority. … Learning does not begin in kindergarten and neither should our education system.”

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Three- and four-year-old children would get up to 25 hours of free early childhood education each week in a public preschool program, Weaver said. That’s about the same amount of time kids attend elementary school.

The Green party’s plan also calls for free daycare for working parents with children younger than three or a $500 per month credit for families with a stay-at-home parent of a child younger than three.

Those changes, which would be phased in over four years, would cost about $4.239 billion over four years, the party said. Ontario offers all-day optional kindergarten for children beginning the year they turn four years old.