Manitoba auditor general looking into whether daycares are meeting accessibility goals after $1.2B in funding

Manitoba's auditor general has announced a value for money audit to review whether $1.2 billion in federal funding flowing to the Department of Education is actually making child care more accessible, in terms of creating more spaces and making it more inclusive by supporting children with a variety of needs.

Auditor General Tyson Shtykalo also said last week that he's still considering a request from a deputy minister of education to review the construction of 22 daycares initiated by the previous Progressive Conservative government.

They were built in partnership with a company that paid millions of dollars to a separate company co-owned by the director of the PCs' 2023 re-election campaign. 

In 2021, the province signed a funding deal worth about $1.2 billion over five years with the federal government to create access to affordable and integrated child care.

The priorities for the first two years of the program were to reduce fees to $10 per day by March 2023, establish standardized wages and create 23,000 new child care spaces by spring of 2026. 

The upcoming audit "will look at the [Education] Department's plans and processes to meet its commitments under the accessibility and inclusivity objectives" of the agreement, says a posting on the website of the auditor general's office.

The auditor general said that audit was already in the works when the Education Department asked him to look at the construction of several daycares outside the city of Winnipeg. 

"We received a request from the [Education] Department during our planning for this performance audit," Shtykalo told CBC.

In a letter tabled in the Manitoba Legislature on April 25, deputy education minister Brian O'Leary requested an audit of the $100-million construction project for the 22 daycares, saying it "may not have followed normal provincial or municipal procurement practices."  

The project was managed by JohnQ Public Inc. — a company owned by 12 rural municipalities that are listed as shareholders. According to its CEO, JohnQ entered into a contract with Boom Done Next, a management consulting company.

Boom Done Next is owned by Joe Leuzzi and his business partner, Marni Larkin, who worked as the PCs' campaign manager in 2023.

Shtykalo said he is still trying to determine which course of action, if any, he will take on the JohnQ daycare audit request. 

It could be rolled into the overall daycare audit, Shtykalo said, or he could launch a separate investigation. 

"If I decide to launch an investigation, I may not announce the investigation until we've completed our work and issued our report [to the legislature]," he said in a telephone interview. 

The auditor general is an officer of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly whose role is to provide MLAs with independent information, without questioning the merits of policy objectives of a particular government.

Shtykalo says value for money audits usually take up to a year and a half to complete. He had no timeline for how long it would take to complete an investigation into the JohnQ daycares, in the event he decides further scrutiny is required. 

In a written statement, Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said her department is "pleased he's considering our request."

CBC News also requested comment about the upcoming audit from JohnQ CEO Colleen Sklar and Leuzzi of Boom Done Next, but did not receive replies prior to publication.