Province, feds to spend $180M on thousands of child-care spaces in Manitoba

More than 3,700 new licensed child-care spaces at public schools and post-secondary institutions are set to be created in Manitoba, thanks to $180 million in funding from the province and the federal government.

But with Manitoba's shortfall of 1,000 early childhood educators, the executive director of the Manitoba Child Care Association says more investments in workforce recruitment and retention is needed.

"New child-care spaces for families, affordable child-care spaces for families are excellent. They will be empty if we don't have early childhood educators to work in those programs," Jodie Kehl said after a news conference at the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology (MITT) on Thursday.

Through funding under the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, $132 million will be spent across 36 public schools to create more than 2,400 child-care spaces for children under seven years old, the province and federal government said in a joint news release.

An additional $45 million will support more than 680 child-care space expansions for children under seven in six different post-secondary institutions, including Assiniboine Community College, MITT, Red River College Polytechnic, the University College of the North, the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg.

Those expansions include two space renovations, two building additions and five stand-alone facilities.

"It's going to make a real difference for parents," federal Families Minister Karina Gould said at the news conference.

"We know accessing child care — actually finding a space — has been a struggle for a long time and so we're working on it."

The province will also spend $3.4 million to create 60 school-age spaces at the Université de Saint-Boniface and will support 555 spaces in 24 public schools for children ages seven to 12 through planned capital expansions, the news release said.

The public school expansion projects include six room conversions, two building additions and 28 stand-alone facilities. 

Wayne Ewasko, education and early childhood learning minister for the province, said Manitoba hopes to create 23,000 spaces by March 2026.

"We are well on our track to make sure that comes to fruition," he said Thursday.

Another $3.5 million through the province's and federal government's child-care agreement will see seven "learning labs" created at six post-secondary institutions for those studying early childhood education.

Workforce strategy needed: child-care association

While there has been some investment in the early childhood education workforce, Kehl said more is needed.

"We need a comprehensive workforce strategy that is addressing the systemic issues that have been present in Manitoba for decades," she said.

Kehl said increasing educators' salaries and providing professional development opportunities, group benefits and pensions are key to making sure they're fully supported.

The provincial, territorial and federal governments all committed to working on a national workforce strategy for educators at a meeting last week, Gould said.

"The challenges are not unique to Manitoba. They're being faced by every jurisdiction across the country," said Gould.

"We recognize that there is no child care without the talented, well-qualified, caring child-care workforce that goes with it."