Province long way from promised preschool child-care spaces, frustrated advocates say

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This article was published 20/11/2024 (332 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Child-care advocates in Manitoba are calling on the government to move faster on its promise to create 23,000 new child-care spaces by 2026.

At the rate it is going, it would take the Manitoba government nearly 39 years to make good on the commitment to open the preschool spaces, the Manitoba Child Care Association says.

“We understand that building a system takes time, but we are falling very short,” said Cathy Gardiner, president of the Manitoba Child Care Association.

Since the province signed the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement in 2021, the province has opened 1,654 new preschool spaces, according to Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning annual reports.

At an average of 551 new spaces per year, it would take 38.7 years to meet the goal of 23,000 new spaces, the Manitoba Child Care Association said. As a result, just one in five children has access to a licensed child-care space in Manitoba.

“We haven’t moved the dial in over five years. It simply is not enough,” Gardiner said.

As part of the agreement, Manitoba promised to create more than 23,000 spaces by 2026.

The government’s promise to make child care more affordable by providing $10 per day child care has been met and exceeded, with the average daily out-of-pocket costs to parents at $8.79. In December, the province will expand the $10 fee to all school-aged children.

Sheila Atchison, a mother of two, considers herself lucky to have access to care for her preschool and school-aged children.

“Not everybody can get into centres. It’s still a very difficult process to get your children into early childhood education and daycares and it’s a big deal when you’re planning a family,” she said.

Susan Prentice, a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Manitoba and a member of the Child Care Coalition of Manitoba, called for a model of public management and delivery of child care.

As it stands, most centres in Manitoba are owned and operated by non-profit organizations.

“We rely on parent volunteers to start up and operate non-profit child-care centres… these volunteers are amazing, but 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,” Prentice said.

In July 2023, the province announced $132 million to create 2,400 spaces across 36 public schools.

In Tuesday’s throne speech, the NDP government promised 3,500 new child-care spaces at schools, universities and hospitals along with a workforce recruitment-and-retention strategy.

Gardiner said even if the 3,500-space promise is met and committed to each year, it would still take seven years to meet the 23,000-space promise.

“Children can’t wait and parents can’t wait, and what we need to see is real growth,” she said.

In 2016, the government-run Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Commission called for a new model of public management, something that has yet to happen.

Currently, the Manitoba Métis Federation runs six government-operated child-care centres for Red River Métis children.

Acting Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt said she would entertain conversations about publicly managed facilities but wouldn’t commit to the idea.

Schmidt said the province plans to ask its federal counterparts to extend Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care funding past 2026 to build up capacity in the system.

“We’re playing catch up on seven years from the previous government who didn’t care about adding spaces,” Schmidt said. “If we could make sure there was a space for every child, we would.”

The advocates also pointed to severe staffing issues that are impacting centres across Manitoba.

According to the Early Learning and Child Care Commission’s annual report, there were 8,750 licensed employees overseeing the care of 41,870 children as of March 31.

Gardiner said Manitoba has a shortfall of more than 1,000 certified early childhood educators and the province needs approximately 3,000 in order to staff the 23,000 promised spaces.

“We wouldn’t build a school without teachers. We wouldn’t build a hospital without doctors and nurses and we can’t build an early learning and childcare system without a workforce,” she said.

Assiniboine College will offer an accelerated Early Childhood Education diploma program in Winnipeg in an attempt to increase staffing.

Prentice said competitive wages, mentor opportunities and more paid development days — teachers get 10 per year while early childhood educators get two — will help in recruiting and retaining candidates.

In the 2024 budget, the province committed to increasing base operating grants by five per cent for all funded child-care facilities, including both centres and homes, as well as wage increases for early childhood educators.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca