Manitoba families facing child-care crisis: PCs

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This article was published 07/04/2016 (3445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Progressive Conservatives say they will take immediate steps to improve access to child care by boosting home-based daycares.

“With more than 12,000 children waiting for a space, Manitoba families are facing a child-care crisis,” said PC Portage la Prairie MLA Ian Wishart Thursday in announcing his party’s child-care strategy. “Families have told us clearly they want child care close to home or close to school. Simply throwing money at this is clearly not working. We have a plan to ensure safe, affordable child-care spaces are available for Manitoba families.”

The Tories said they would improve the situation by making it easier to open and operate a home-based daycare and increasing funding for such spaces.

The Progressive Conservatives would increase operating funding for licensed, home-based child care spaces by 70 per cent for infants, 68 per cent for pre-school aged children and 15 per cent for school aged children.

They said they would also work in partnership with school divisions to increase the number of child-care spaces in public schools and expedite the development of new facilities by “exploring social enterprise initiatives and public-private partnerships” for construction and maintenance of facilities.

And they would increase incentives to encourage more Manitobans to train as early childhood educators by working with post-secondary institutions to enhance scholarship and bursary opportunities.

“We will reduce the wait list for child-care spaces and provide better options for families seeking care for their children,” said Wishart. “A new Progressive Conservative government will continue to work in partnership with Family Dynamics, a community agency specializing in child care supports for families.”

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The NDP responded to the PC announcement by accusing the Tories of freezing the number of child-care spaces and raising fees by 75 per cent when they were last in government.

“Brian Pallister and his Conservatives have not presented a real plan for accessible child care. We believe in supporting home-based daycare, but you can’t eliminate a 12,000-space wait list four spaces at a time,” the NDP said in a statement.