Province to spend $22M to create more child-care spots

The Manitoba government will spend more than $22 million in new and reallocated funds to create an additional 1,400 child-care spots in the province. 

The funding includes $8.5 million for workplaces to create on-site child-care services for employees, grants for home-based child-care providers and money for licensed child-care centres to establish satellite locations, Families Minister Heather Stefanson announced Wednesday. 

The Progressive Conservative government is also following through with a commitment in their 2020 budget to create a $9.5 million trust fund that will support a variety of different projects and upgrades at child-care facilities. 

The fund will also be used for professional development and training for child-care providers.

In addition, $4.7 million will go toward expanding tax credits for employer-based child-care centres. 

Right now, the supply of child-care spaces actually exceeds the demand, but that will likely change as more people go back to work, Stefanson said. 

The province also wants to ensure there are options for people who have a need for child care beyond the standard nine-to-five options, she said. 

"We want to make sure that they get the kind of child care that they need, whether it's maybe for a few hours here and there, maybe it's in the evening into the morning hours," she said. "But we'll have to assess what's needed on the demand side and make sure it's provided on the supply side."