NDP vow to make $10-a-day child care available over summers, holidays for school-age children

The commitment to $10-a-day child care shouldn't take a holiday over the summer months, the Manitoba NDP announced.

Official Opposition leader Wab Kinew said an NDP government, if elected in October, would also provide $10-a-day child care at regulated non-profit child-care centres on days when school-age children are not in the classroom: the summer months and other holidays, weekends and school in-service days.

Currently, those parents and guardians are paying a $20.80 fee on those dates.

On Sunday, Kinew said the many provincially-funded billboards and bus stop ads earlier that touted $10-a -day child-care earlier this year were misleading.

"You might see $10-a-day on a billboard. But when you show up at a child-care centre and you drop your kids off during a work day in the summer, or on a PD day at school … or on a holiday, it's not true $10-a-day," Kinew said, after helping kids with their arts and crafts at an announcement at Paufeld Park in northeast Winnipeg. 

He estimated the promise would cost $10 million annually. 

The NDP commitment goes beyond the terms of the federal plan to provide child care at an average cost of $10 a day. Manitoba signed onto the agreement in 2021 and, starting this April, established $10 as the maximum price at regulated non-profit child-care centres, three years ahead of its 2026 target.

The joint federal and provincial agreement, though, only covered children under the age of six. 

Manitoba's PC government decided to extend the new fee to school-aged children as well, but only on school days. The maximum fee dropped marginally as a result from $10.30 to $10, said Jodie Kehl, executive director of the Manitoba Child Care Association.

Some parents surprised to pay $20

Kehl said many families of school-age children were surprised to learn they'd still be paying daily fees of around $20 on non-school-days.

"We've talked about the fact that children do not stop being children at the age of six, and so all families in Manitoba with children and child care should be eligible for the reduced $10-a-day fee," she said.

In addition, the NDP pledged to expand child-care hours to be more flexible for parents who work variable hours. Kinew said his government would prioritize those centres that expand their hours, but didn't specify how.

Manitoba currently provides increased operating grants to child-care facilities with extended hours, but Kehl said financial incentives to the centres themselves aren't enough. 

"It always goes back to the workforce, because without a certified workforce to take care of children during those non-traditional hours, there is no incentive for facilities to do it, really.

"I think for most directors the concept of now offering care outside of the traditional 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. is probably overwhelming for them."

It may help if the government covered higher wages for staff working evening and weekend shifts, Kehl suggested. 

Kinew also said a NDP government would create more child-care spaces. The party has pledged to adopt the fiscal framework of the PC's last budget, which includes a plan to create 23,000 new spaces by 2026.

"The difference between the PCs, who talk about it, and us, the Manitoba NDP, is that we are the party of builders. We will build the spaces that are needed across this province and not just talk about it." 

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Rochelle Squires, Riel MLA for the Progressive Conservatives, said the government is halfway toward its goal of 23,000 more spaces if you count the child-care spaces opened and announced since 2021.

"Clearly the NDP aren't ready for government. Our PC Team has already implemented the largest expansion of child care in Manitoba history with 2,600 new school-age spaces, including room for after-school, in-service and summer time care."

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont panned the NDP for being short on specifics.

"The details of this NDP announcement could fit in a fortune cookie," he said in a statement.

"Proper funding, training and access to child care is a make-or-break situation for parents, [early childhood education] centres and workers, and Wab Kinew and the NDP are offering nothing of substance. It's all empty talk and no action."

The election is set for Oct. 3.