Daycare cost improves, but spaces tight: survey

Four years after Manitoba signed a federal-provincial plan to offer $10-a-day universal child care, it’s fallen short of providing a space for every child who needs it, a survey released Tuesday says.

The Probe Research survey of nearly 1,900 parents in Manitoba found that 76 per say the province isn’t even close to having a universal child care system. The bilateral agreement signed Aug. 9, 2021 committed federal funding to help reduce costs for families and expand the number of available spaces in Manitoba by 23,000.

While most parents (70 per cent) agreed the $10-a-day plan is working and has made it more affordable, accessing child care remains a problem, the survey conducted April 2-25 for the Manitoba Child Care Association says.

“We know that $10-a-day child care has been a gamechanger for many families, not all, but many,” said executive director Jodie Kehl.

The survey, similar to one conducted in 2016, aimed to provide insight on what’s working for families and what needs to be fixed after a global pandemic shuttered day cares in 2020 and a universal program was announced a year later, Kehl said.

The survey found that parents are twice as likely now to say child care in Manitoba is affordable and not a large strain on their household budget (64 per cent now compared to 31 per cent in 2016).

The wait time for a space, however, is an average 17 months, the survey found.

“As child care has become more affordable in the province, the need for child care has been exacerbated,” said Kehl. Just 13 per cent of parents agreed it was easy to find a space — down three percentage points since 2016.

“Wait lists are long, and to hear that families are waiting up to 17 months before finding a space is not surprising,” Kehl said.

The percentage of parents satisfied overall with their child care dipped to 85 per cent in 2025 from 92 per cent satisfied in 2016.

“I think parents are more aware about what high-quality early learning and child care is now, and the need to have a comprehensive workforce strategy so that we have trained, educated, well-remunerated early childhood educators has never been more prevalent or more important,” Kehl said.

Just 27 per cent of parents noticed improvements in staffing ratios in recent years that since 2021 has created 3,408 of the targeted 23,000 new spaces for infants and pre-schoolers under the federal-provincial plan.

The survey was conducted before May when the provincial and federal governments announced a new wage grid for the local early learning and child-care sector that includes raises up to $5 more per hour to help recruit and retain staff.

“We know that new spaces are going to be empty spaces if there are no early childhood educators to work in those spaces,” Kehl said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca