More child-care providers could get licensed, parent fees capped for 3 years in new legislation
Pallister government introduces bill with significant changes to Manitoba child-care system
The Manitoba government has introduced legislation that includes broad changes to the province's child-care system, including having more child-care programs eligible to become licensed facilities and expanding which providers can receive grants.
The province also plans to freeze the amount child-care providers can charge parents for three years.
Bill 47, distributed in the Manitoba Legislature Thursday afternoon, would also require licensed child-care facilities to provide approved early learning programming to preschoolers.
In addition, the legislation would encourage the creation of more part-time and extended-hours options for those who work or participate in education or training in the evenings, Families Minister Rochelle Squires said Thursday.
She said the province has heard from single mothers who are unable to find reliable child care because most facilities are only open during day time hours.
"We need an adaptable child care sector that can respond to a diverse workforce."
The current act focuses on licensing child-care centres and home-based services, but the new legislation would allow different services to become licensed too.
An example would be a dance studio that offers child care on site, Squires said.
"That is just once example of the adaptation and flexibility that we're wanting to put into this legislation. There are so many possibilities that we can't conceive of," she said.
The province would still provide operating grants to licensed and regulated child-care providers, and more operators would be able to receive the grants, Squires said.
Squires said she knows grants have been frozen for years and the child care sector needs an infusion of cash, and promised she'd provide more information about that on Friday.
The bill will also formally introduce the concept of early learning as a defined program, and clarify what the province defines as child care and early learning services to support flexibility within the sector and an increased focus on early learning, she said.
In addition, the legislation addresses the need for more certification options in the child-care sector, Squires said. Right now, people can take a 40-hour child-care assistant course, a two-year diploma in early childhood education or a three- to four-year degree.
The province recognizes that there needs to be more options, she said.
Danielle Adams, NDP child care critic, was not pleased by the bill presented Thursday.
"This bill does nothing to address the chaos and confusion, and the lack of respect that they show to [early childhood educators] and parents during the pandemic," Adams told reporters during a scrum.
"What are they doing to support child-care centres now? They've effectively kept funding levels to 2016. It's 2021."
Adams, who is calling for affordable universal child care in Manitoba, is concerned that keeping funding levels low will force some child-care centres to go bankrupt and open the sector to private business.
Jodie Kehl, executive director of Manitoba Child Care Association, likes that the bill would define early learning in legislation, as it would recognize the work of early learning and child-care educators. But she's worried that parent fees are going to be frozen for three years.
"Although affordability is good and important for families in Manitoba, the parent fees have been frozen in Manitoba since 2013," Kehl said. "In eight years, every other cost has gone up. Cost of living, inflation, hydro, rent, gas, food — and 60 per cent of facilities' revenue is coming from parent fees.
"If this province is choosing to freeze the parent fees … then there has got to be some significant investment into the existing system."
Kehl notes that investment is necessary in licensed facilities, because there will have to be quality child care in place to help Manitoba's economy recover post-pandemic.
With files from Ian Froese