Province directs funding towards new child-care spaces in Sage Creek

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This article was published 03/04/2023 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba government is funding new child-care spaces in a southeast Winnipeg suburb as regular daycare fees drop for most families.

Living Prairie Childcare in Sage Creek, a community east of Highway 59 just north of the Perimeter Highway, will receive $375,000 from the province to support the addition of 60 seats.

The funding comes from the Early Learning and Child Care Building Fund.

The child-care centre recently completed an addition to its licensed facility that opened last month. Twenty new spots were added for preschool kids and 40 new spots were added for school-age kids, bringing the facility’s capacity to 134.

Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko announced the cash support Monday morning, one day after $10-per-day child-care fees went into effect in Manitoba.

As of Sunday, fees for children enrolled in infant, nursery and preschool programs during regular care hours (four to 10 hours) at licensed child-care facilities receiving provincial operating grants dropped to $10 per day.

“A family with an infant will now be paying $10 a day, down from $30 per day for regular child care, which is a savings of $100 a week for a family with just one infant,” Ewasko told a press conference at the child-care centre.

Under the Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, the provincial government committed to reaching average parent fees of $10 per day for children under the age of seven by 2026.

In 2021, the federal Liberal government signed an agreement with the provinces for a five-year, $1.2 billion program to cut fees for children 12 and under who attend licensed, funded early learning and child-care centres and homes to $10. The agreement also supported increases to the number of available child-care spaces by retaining, recruiting and training more early childhood educators.

Manitoba was able to get fees down to $10 a day for infant, nursery and preschool children three years ahead of schedule. The two levels of government will spend $73 million in 2023-24 to support the fee reduction.

Fees for school-age children attending before-school, lunch and after-school programs will also be reduced to $10 a day.

Living Prairie Childcare executive director Victoria Hale thanked the Manitoba government for its support, which she said will address some of the needs in the community for additional child-care spaces.

The province has committed to add 23,000 new, regulated not-for-profit child-care spaces for kids under age seven by 2026.

Thousands of families are still waiting for regulated child-care spaces in Manitoba and lower fees are expected to drive up demand for service.

The province offers tuition rebates up to $5,000 a year for early childhood education students and has issued an expression of interest to expand post-secondary training options for early childhood educators.

The province’s goal is to train 1,000 child-care assistants and 2,000 early childhood educators by 2026.

— Staff