Child-care agreement between province and feds brings in new funding to Manitoba

The federal government and Manitoba’s provincial government have come together to fund new supports for child-care and education.

In an announcement Monday, the governments combined to allocate $8.1 million to fund new early learning and child-care spaces across the province.

“The Manitoba government is committed to strengthening the full continuum of child-care services for Manitoba families,” said Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko in a statement. “Supporting these newly funded child-care spaces will improve families’ access to quality, affordable child care, while also supporting the province’s post-COVID economic recovery.

“These investments provide operating grant funding to all early learning and child-care facilities with spaces on the current waitlist,” said Ewasko. “This funding will support and build the capacity of existing child-care facilities across Manitoba to provide affordable, high-quality programming while working toward our goal to create 23,000 new and newly funded full-time regulated care spaces by 2026.”

The province is investing $4.8 million, which will go towards spaces for children 7 to 12-years-old. The other $3.3 million comes from the feds, which will go towards child-care for children under seven.

“Every child deserves the best start in life,” said federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould. “The additional licensed child-care spaces allow more children and families in Manitoba to access high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care, no matter where they live.”

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In addition to the child-care supports, both governments announced funding of close to $37 million to support wage equity for early learning and childcare staff.

“Our government recognizes that a well-compensated workforce is essential to stabilize and strengthen the early learning and child-care sector and is a critical step in addressing labour market shortages,” said Ewasko. “This investment will support the dedicated staff who provide high-quality care and early learning opportunities that promote positive early childhood development outcomes, setting the stage for the lifelong success for young Manitobans.

“Today’s announcement builds on recent investments under the extension of the Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement announced in February 2022. At that time, $6.6 million was allocated toward the Wage Bridge Benefit, which would carry us over to the launch of the wage grid,” said Ewasko. “The Wage Bridge Benefit provided a one-time retroactive wage supplement for the lowest-paid child-care assistants and early childhood educators during 2021-22, to increase their wages and move us closer to the targets outlined in today’s wage grid announcement.”

The wage supplement will be available as of July 1, and helps develop the wage grid commitment made by all provinces and territories outside Quebec.

“Early childhood educators are at the very heart of the Canada-wide early learning and child care system,” said Gould. “Today’s announcement with Manitoba is a meaningful step in valuing their essential work and ensuring they have the support they need to continue caring for our children every day.”

“The Manitoba government recognizes the invaluable service of the province’s child-care assistants and early childhood educators, and we are proud to be one of the first jurisdictions in Canada that is ready to proceed with implementing a wage grid to better support the early childhood learning workforce,” said Ewasko. “These important investments are part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring all Manitoba families, regardless of where in the province they live, have access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child-care services.”