'We are falling short': Manitoba slow to create needed child-care spaces, advocates say

Child-care groups are calling on the Manitoba government to boost the creation of new child-care spaces, saying at the current rate of expansion, it will take 39 years to meet the commitment of 23,000 new preschool spaces.

"Manitoba has moved fast to improve child-care affordability for parents, but not all families are lucky to have a regulated child-care space," said Susan Prentice, a University of Manitoba sociology professor and spokesperson for the Manitoba Child Care Association.

Only 1,654 new preschool spaces have been opened since 2021, when Manitoba signed on to the federal government's early learning and child care agreement in August 2021 and promised to create 23,000 new spaces by 2026, the child care association said.

As a result, only one child in five has access to a licensed child care space in Manitoba, Prentice said.

"We have made very, very slow progress on spaces expansion."

With funding from Ottawa, Manitoba in April 2023 began offering $10 a day fees for children up to six years old in regulated child care. Starting in December 2024, the lower fees will extend to children up to 12 years old.

"This has made life much more affordable for many families in our province," said Jodie Kehl, MCCA executive director.

"However, we know that we are not done building a high-quality, inclusive, flexible and accessible system in Manitoba. There is much, much more work to be done. We are falling short."

The organization held its news conference on Wednesday to coincide with National Child Day in Canada.

The MCCA applauded the provincial government for many things it has done to improve child-care accessibility, including a capital program to build facilities in schools.

But what's really missing — aside from the dearth of new spaces — is a model for public management and delivery of child care, Prentice said.

"Instead, we rely on parent volunteers to start up and operate non-profit child-care centres. These are 95 per cent of all the centres in Manitoba," she said.

"It is a lot of work to ask parents of young children, during the most time-starved years of their lives, to run the services on which they rely."

Back in 2016, the Manitoba Early Learning and Childcare Commission called for a new model of public management, but that has not happened yet, Prentice said.

New operating model needed: MCCA

In Ontario, since 1946, there have been municipally owned and operated child-care programs. In Quebec, school boards provide child care for kids age six to 12, Prentice said.

"In Manitoba, the only government directly providing child care is the Manitoba Métis Federation, which currently operates at least six programs and is planning more," she said.

It is public delivery that has made universal access to elementary and high schools possible, she said.

"Over a century ago, Manitoba schools were an uncorded collection of one-room schoolhouses. We changed that with the Manitoba Schools Act of 1890," Prentice said.

"With public education, children's learning improved, teacher training got better and wages increased as teachers organized as public sector workers. The physical space of schools improved as we invested in them. The quality of learning rose for all children, including children with additional support needs."

Access to education, when made equal, reaches many social objectives, she said, quoting the late Murray Sinclair, who said education is the way forward on reconciliation.

"We do not have public education deserts, but we do have child-care deserts. Sixty-nine per cent of Manitoba's children live in a child-care desert, and it's worse for children living outside of Winnipeg in smaller centres. We would not accept that for schools," Prentice said.

"We need to modernize child-care governance, infrastructure and delivery. It will be the only way to create the spaces we need so badly."

Tracy Schmidt, acting minister of education and early childhood learning, said in a statement to CBC News that the provincial government is working hard to make life better for families, including adding 3,500 new child care spaces in Tuesday's throne speech.

She also touted the NDP's increase of operating grants to child-care facilities, which has gone up after "seven years of funding freezes" by the former Progressive Conservative government.

"We respect and value the work of early child-care educators," Schmidt said. "That's why we increased their wages by 2.75 per cent and are working with post-secondary institutions to recruit and retain more [early childhood educators]."