Child Care Crunch – Winnipeg Free Press

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
A Finance Department analysis found the basic cost of raising a child -- for things such as food, shelter, child care, clothing, health care, personal care, recreation and transportation -- rose mostly in line with inflation from 1998 to 2013.

Province to add 900 child care spaces, give daycare workers 2 per cent raise

Mary Agnes Welch 2 minute read Thursday, Jun. 4, 2015

The province announced 900 new daycare spaces and a raise for workers Thursday, but Premier Greg Selinger acknowledged wait lists for care aren’t shrinking.

Roughly 12,000 children are listed on the province’s central registry, several hundred more than two years ago. Daycares all over Winnipeg say they have hundreds of children on their internal lists, and, it’s impossible to know if wait times are shrinking. Manitoba’s Auditor General noted this week in a report that the province’s computer system can’t measure wait times for parents, so they can’t be reported publicly.

Speaking at Little Saints Learning Centre in St. Vital, which is opening a second location with provincial funding, Selinger said the number of new families moving to Manitoba and a strong economy are making it hard to make progress.

“If the list started going down that would be a positive thing,” said Selinger. “But it’s probably going to continue with strong demand because we have more people moving here.”

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Province increases scrutiny of daycare centres after auditor report finds gaps in oversight

By Mary Agnes Welch 3 minute read Preview

Province increases scrutiny of daycare centres after auditor report finds gaps in oversight

By Mary Agnes Welch 3 minute read Saturday, May. 9, 2015

One kid drove his Big Wheel onto a street in Norwood. Two preschoolers got lost for 45 minutes in the Spruce Woods forest. Another child was forgotten inside during a practice fire drill.

Those are some of the risky incidents at Manitoba daycares in recent years that make up a spike in the number of orders issued by provincial regulators. The spike isn't necessarily because the number of dangerous incidents has increased. Instead, provincial inspectors are getting tougher, as recommended by Manitoba's auditor general two years ago.

"We did increase our oversight efforts," said the province in a statement. "The procedure for issuing a licensing order remains the same - it is based on serious or repeated violations of the act or regulations."

In January 2013, provincial auditor general Carol Bellringer issued a report on the state of the province's child-care regime and found, among other things, the province was hesitant to slap orders on daycares that put kids at risk, even repeat offenders.

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Saturday, May. 9, 2015

Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press
Orders at daycares have increased since provincial inspectors got tougher.

Inspections result in nearly half of province’s daycare centres receiving only temporary licences

Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Preview

Inspections result in nearly half of province’s daycare centres receiving only temporary licences

Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Wednesday, May. 6, 2015

Nearly half of Manitoba’s daycare centres didn’t pass muster with fire, health and child-care inspectors and were awarded only temporary provisional licences this spring.

But, unlike British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and now New Brunswick, the details of those inspections aren’t public, and likely won’t be for years.

According to a Free Press analysis of nearly 700 licensed centres and nursery schools, 47 per cent were given temporary, provisional licences following the annual round of inspections done in February and March. Those provisional licences typically expire next month. Centres will be awarded permanent ones if they fix what needs fixing, which most do.

Public health inspectors found problems with roughly 13 per cent of daycare centres and nursery schools, but the Manitoba government posts no details online so it’s impossible to gauge how serious the health violations were.

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Wednesday, May. 6, 2015

Manitoba daycares see low scores in personal-care categories

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Preview

Manitoba daycares see low scores in personal-care categories

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Monday, May. 4, 2015

New data suggest Manitoba’s daycares are often of middling quality and do badly at basic germ control, toilet procedures and snack time.

On a scale of one to seven, last year, Manitoba’s daycares scored an average of 4.7 on a checklist used continent-wide to rate cleanliness, educational programs and supervision of children. A score of three is considered minimal, while five is considered good.

Now, Manitoba is about to do away with the mandatory use of the quality checklists.

The checklists, called ECERS and ITERS or the early childhood and infant/toddler environment rating scales, were given to the Winnipeg Free Press following an access-to-information request. More than 400 detailed scores were released covering two years, but the Manitoba government refused to release the names of individual daycares.

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Monday, May. 4, 2015

Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press
Pre-school kids enjoy lunch together at a Winnipeg child-care centre.

Finding quality daycare is a challenge, most notably in the city’s poorest areas

By Mary Agnes Welch and Inayat Singh 13 minute read Preview

Finding quality daycare is a challenge, most notably in the city’s poorest areas

By Mary Agnes Welch and Inayat Singh 13 minute read Monday, May. 4, 2015

Few parents in River Heights or St. James or Fort Rouge would say they had an easy time finding daycare. Parental horror stories abound of new mothers delaying their return to work, cadging care off grandparents or ever-so-casually dropping by their local daycare with plates of cookies, hoping to gently bribe their way into a spot.

But as bad as the daycare shortage is in those middle-class neighbourhoods, it’s nothing compared to the pinch in poor ones.

“I have people crying at my doorstep all the time,” said Wanda Bruenig, executive director of Freight House’s three inner-city daycare locations. “They are so desperate for child care.”

There are far fewer daycare spaces for poor kids in Winnipeg, even though experts say really great early childhood education can halt the kind of entrenched poverty passed down from generation to generation and catapult kids forward in school.

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Monday, May. 4, 2015

Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press
Early Childhood Educators working with children at the Splash Child Enrichment Centre on McGregor Street.

Few companies offer daycare services for staff, despite benefits

By Mary Agnes Welch and Mia Rabson 5 minute read Preview

Few companies offer daycare services for staff, despite benefits

By Mary Agnes Welch and Mia Rabson 5 minute read Monday, Mar. 2, 2015

It was supposed to help companies create 5,000 new workplace daycare spaces every year, but a federal tax credit announced eight years ago has fizzled.

The tax credit, part of the Conservative party's platform in 2006, has had so little uptake, the Harper government would not say how many spaces were created or the total cost.

"We are obliged to protect the confidentiality of our tax filers' information, and there are not enough businesses claiming the credit for us to be able to release the information and still maintain that confidentiality," said a spokesperson for the Canada Revenue Agency by email.

The Conservatives promised to spend $250 million over five years on the credit. But, annual federal finance documents from 2007 on say actual spending on the tax credit was too small to bother reporting.

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Monday, Mar. 2, 2015

Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press
Health Sciences Centre daycare director Racquel Giesbrecht sits with Jaxon Fast, one of the little clients of the daycare. She says the daycare has served as a key recruitment tool for the hospital.

Affordable child care: The $7-a-day question

By Mia Rabson 9 minute read Preview

Affordable child care: The $7-a-day question

By Mia Rabson 9 minute read Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015

OTTAWA -- Montreal professor Kate Hall speaks softly so as not to wake her kids from a nap.

The mother of three kids under the age of six and a school-aged stepson is on maternity leave with her youngest child, a seven-month-old daughter. She is pondering her return to work at Dawson College later this year.

Thirty years ago, Hall likely would not have been able to consider going back to work. The cost of putting three children in daycare would have been out of reach.

"There's no way I'd be able to have this many children and work full time," said Hall.

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Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015

Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press
Gina Gasparrini, executive director of Centre de la petite enfance St. Mary in Montreal, says the program, while successful, isn’t perfect. There still aren’t enough spaces to meet demand.

Provincial commission to look at universal early child care

By Larry Kusch 3 minute read Preview

Provincial commission to look at universal early child care

By Larry Kusch 3 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015

The Manitoba government is establishing a commission to recommend ways to achieve its goal of making early learning and child care universally accessible.

Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said a consultant will be hired by April 1 to take on the role of commissioner. A 12-person advisory committee has been named to assist the commissioner, who is expected to report his or her findings within a year.

The province’s early learning and child care program, established four decades ago, is now challenged by growing demands for what has become an essential service for modern families, advocates say.

A provincial online registry for child care has close to 12,000 names on its waiting list.

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Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Kerri Irvin-Ross announced a new girls' shelter last week, with cases such as the killing of Tina Fontaine garnering attention.

Rising rent imperils daycares

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Preview

Rising rent imperils daycares

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Monday, Jan. 26, 2015

For years, when things have been relatively quiet at the Sunny Mountain daycare, Debra Page and Claire Ferrer jump in the car and take a real estate cruise.

Page and her second-in-command have known for years their cramped location in a Main Street strip mall was far from ideal. They've eyeballed vacant lots in nearby Garden City, school fields, community clubs, underused parks, even an old funeral home in a bid to finesse a deal for an affordable new location.

Now, those wishful-thinking tours are suddenly desperate. One of the city's best daycares will have to move or close in the next two or three years because of another rent increase. In June, the annual rent on their 6,000-square-foot strip-mall location will increase by $17,000.

"We have to get out of here. The rent for this place will be over $100,000 by the end of next year," said Page, the executive director of Sunny Mountain and its satellite locations. "It's really tough. It scares the parents. I'm scared for the parents."

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Monday, Jan. 26, 2015

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Sunny Mountain Day Care Centre director Debra Page (second from left) and manager Claire Ferrer -- with two of their charges, Zoey (left) and Mary -- are feeling the crunch of rising rent.

A family’s struggle: desperately seeking daycare

By Mary Agnes Welch 3 minute read Preview

A family’s struggle: desperately seeking daycare

By Mary Agnes Welch 3 minute read Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

Most people set up Kijiji alerts for used Mustangs or antique dining-room sets.

Jamie Slight set one up for daycare.

Slight started with the traditional route, signing up for the online daycare registry when she was four months pregnant. After baby Vera was born, after Slight's brain had cleared from the first couple months of motherhood, she started calling local centres to see where she stood. Slight was told wait lists were four years long and infant spots were mostly reserved for siblings of children already in care. A for-profit Montessori would have cost her and her husband $1,400 a month, which was more than their mortgage and a no-go.

With her back-to-work date approaching and the province's central registry coming up empty after 15 months, Slight was getting desperate.

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Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

Phil Hossack / Winipeg Free Press
Mom Jamie Slight and Vera. The search for daycare extended to online classified site Kijiji.

The daycare dividend

By Mary Agnes Welch and Mia Rabson 9 minute read Preview

The daycare dividend

By Mary Agnes Welch and Mia Rabson 9 minute read Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

Macy Wight, with her giraffe dress and bunny sneakers, can't decide whether to ask for more upside-down tickles from her mom or keep snacking on whatever her dad delivers next from the kitchen.

"Doats!" she points to the nearby bowl of peanut-butter toast cut into squares.

Macy is a spunky, squealy, typical, middle-class toddler. Shortly after her birth, her parents, Sonya and Mitch, had a typical middle-class panic.

"Basically, a month after she was born, I started hearing from other moms about how impossible it was to find daycare," said Sonya Wight, a pharmacist. "A lot of them were going back to work in a month or two and couldn't find anything."

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Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Pres
Mary works on her art project at the Sunny Mountain Day Care Centre.

Child care’s merry-go-round

By Mia Rabson 6 minute read Preview

Child care’s merry-go-round

By Mia Rabson 6 minute read Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

OTTAWA -- In a radio interview, a well-known national journalist and social activist did not mince words when describing the state of child care in Canada.

"Large numbers of children are being cared for in questionable and often hazardous private arrangements," she said.

That quote was delivered on CBC Radio by June Callwood on March 5, 1966.

Don Giesbrecht, CEO of the Canadian Child Care Federation, said someone could have said the exact same thing yesterday.

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Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

A family’s struggle: finding suitable daycare for child with disabilities

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Preview

A family’s struggle: finding suitable daycare for child with disabilities

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

It's been a year of tough lessons for the Anaka family, including a big one: "We didn't know a child could get kicked out of daycare," Kristi Anaka says with a rueful laugh.

The Anakas' moppy-haired four-year-old, Cian, tried three daycares in a year as Kristi attempted to go back to work at the Victoria Hospital. But, as Cian's disabilities -- his developmental delays, his chronic asthma, his impulsiveness -- became clearer, daycare became impossible.

"This has definitely been the most stressful year of our lives," said Kristi as Cian runs up in a firefighter outfit, alerting his mom to an imaginary blaze in the backyard. "If I had know all of this, I don't think I would have tried to go back to work."

It started in the summer of 2013, when the Anakas got a spot at a new, for-profit Montessori not far from their Waverley West home.

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Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

Phil Hossack / Winipeg Free Press
Cian Anaka, 4, interacts with mom Kristi while playing in the family room.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Daycare fees in cities across Canada

1 minute read Preview

INTERACTIVE MAP: Daycare fees in cities across Canada

1 minute read Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015

Here's a map showing median daycare fees in major Canadian cities, along with the proportion of a woman's income the daycare fees represent. Cities with larger circles show daycare fees eating up a larger proportion of income. Hover over a point to see more details about the city.

If you can't see the map below, click here to open it in a new window.

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Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015

Here's a map showing median daycare fees in major Canadian cities, along with the proportion of a woman's income the daycare fees represent. Cities with larger circles show daycare fees eating up a larger proportion of income. Hover over a point to see more details about the city.

If you can't see the map below, click here to open it in a new window.

March 23, 2023