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.
It could take the Manitoba government nearly 39 years to make good on the commitment to open the promised preschool spaces, according to an analysis by the Manitoba Child Care Association.
“We understand that building a system takes time, but we are falling very short,” said Kathy Gardner, president of the MCCA.
Manitoba promised to create more than 23,000 spaces by 2026. (Phil Hossack / Free Press files)
Since the province signed the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, the province has opened only 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 will take 38.7 years to meet the goal of 23,000 new spaces.
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,” Gardner 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, but issues related to spaces and staffing remain.
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 privately owned and operated.
“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 Tuesday’s speech from the throne, the NDP government promised 3,500 new child-care spaces at schools, universities and hospitals along with a workforce recruitment-and-retention strategy.
Gardner said even if the 3,500 spaces promise is met and committed to each year, it would still take seven years to meet its 23,000-space promise.
“Children can’t wait and parents can’t wait, and what we need to see is real growth,” she said.
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole.
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