Child care also an austerity victim

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This article was published 29/08/2023 (795 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A recently renewed federal-provincial child-care announcement and Manitoba billboards promoting $10/day child care create the perception that the province of Manitoba has increased funding and support for child care.

The reality is quite different. Federal funding accounts for all of the increases in child care spending in Manitoba since 2017. As a result, our province appears to be congratulating itself for what are really new national investments in child care. Much more needs to be done to uphold agreements with Ottawa to provide sufficient, quality $10/day child care in Manitoba and create 23,000 new licensed spaces by 2026.

Early learning and child care in Manitoba has struggled through Manitoba government austerity. Few parents and children have access to a licensed child-care space in Manitoba. Access to licensed child care remains stalled at fewer than one space in five children. Other provinces averaged an annual growth rate of 3.6 per cent over the past decade, while Manitoba averaged 1.2 per cent.

New research examining provincial government austerity reveals a government failing to invest, harming the early childhood educator workforce, and promoting privatization, with damaging effects on children and families.

When the Conservatives took office in 2016, there was one certified early childhood educator (ECE) for every 11.3 licensed spaces: the ratio had worsened to one educator for every 14.3 spaces in 2022 — a 25 per cent reduction. Like nurses and teachers, early childhood educators have left the sector under the weight of austerity, inadequate funding, overwork, and poor pay.

By our calculations, Manitoba is currently facing a shortfall of about 1,000 qualified early childhood educators to maintain existing spaces, never mind grow the system.

To understand this loss, it is important to know how child care is delivered and funded. Almost all regulated child-care spaces in our province (92 per cent) are provided by licensed centres. The remainder are provided by licensed family homes, which received hefty increases. Provincial operating grants provide about half of program revenues, and grants to centres were frozen for six consecutive fiscal years at 2016 levels.

Our review of Manitoba government child care spending found that Manitoba cumulatively cut close to $21 million of spending on early learning and child care from 2017-2022, and this does not account for either inflation adjustments or increases in the number of spaces across the past five fiscal years. While operating grants finally rose by 12 per cent last summer, funding still lagged well behind rising operating costs.

Frozen operating funding forced non-profit parent-run boards of directors into desperate straits. Strained to manage rising costs (like rent, supplies, toys, and snacks), programs had to cut staffing. Over three-quarters of child-care staff surveyed report that quality of care has suffered.

One experienced educator told us “the job has become more and more stressful and undervalued throughout the years” while another reported “continually feeling like this essential work with children is at the bottom of the rung.” As the Free Press recently editorialized, “It didn’t have to be this way. Years of austerity made this.”

Nearly all centres in Manitoba are non-profit, which research shows offers higher quality of care.

Yet the Manitoba government has sought to stimulate a commercial child-care sector, offering lucrative tax credits to businesses to start up child care. Provincial legislation was amended to open up public dollars to for-profit early learning and child-care operations, despite high parent fees in the “market” sector — well over twice the cost of care in non-profits.

For now, the new federal $10/day plan does not apply in commercial facilities, but as one news report observed, “private daycares want a piece of funding.” This is worrisome for Manitoba, because in jurisdictions with high amounts of commercial care, quality standards and regulations tend to be low.

Child care is an essential public service, meeting multiple goals when it is done well. It helps parents balance caregiving and breadwinning. It is part of Indigenous reconciliation, being among the Calls to Action made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Early learning and child care bring children from diverse backgrounds together, creating welcoming sites of social inclusion.

Good access to quality child care helps combat poverty, making it particularly needed by low-income parents. Creating 23,000 new child-care spaces will require new construction and ongoing staffing by educators, which will boost economic development in Manitoba.

Studies repeatedly show that investing in high-quality non-profit early childhood care and education brings in tax revenue which more than pays for itself. Future governments would be well-advised to reverse course on the current costly austerity and privatization agenda.

Susan Prentice is the Duff Roblin Professor of Government at the University of Manitoba and Jesse Hajer is an assistant professor in economics and labour studies at the University of Manitoba. Both are research associates with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — Manitoba.