Manitoba to add 14 new rural child care hubs

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This article was published 16/02/2023 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A federal-provincial program to boost the number of regulated child care centres in Manitoba has been expanded by more than 400 spaces.

On Thursday, Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko said 14 additional rural and remote communities will be getting a new child care centre under the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

“The Manitoba government is making investments to ensure families in rural and First Nations communities have access to affordable child care,” Ewasko said in a release.

The minister made the announcement at the Tache Community Day Care in Lorette, alongside daycare director Melissa Marion and Rural Municipality of Tache Mayor Armand Poirier.

In November, the federal and provincial governments said $70 million had been earmarked to build 1,200 new, regulated non-profit child care spaces focused in rural and First Nations communities.

The new facilities are modular, prefabricated buildings that can be readily transported and built in communities across Manitoba.

Local partners and municipalities have to provide at least two acres of serviced land for 15 years rent-free and provide snow removal, landscape maintenance and repair services.

The first phase of the program included nine communities and 650 child care spaces, with plans to expand to eight more communities in Phase 2.

Ewasko said the second phase of the program will now include 14 facilities and 1,004 child care spaces. The new centres are expected to open by the end of the year.

An additional $24 million has also been provided to support the expanded program.

“The new child care spaces in our rural municipality open up opportunities for our community members, enabling them to put their children in daycare close to home and fully participate in the workforce,” Poirier said.

Communities that will receive a new daycare in Phase 2 of the program include: Lorette, Lake St. Martin First Nation, Kleefeld, Norway House Cree Nation, Oak Lake, La Salle, St. Adolphe, Stony Mountain, Melita, Baldur, Tyndall, Dauphin, Morden, and Morris.