News & Stories: Policy Monitor

The government announces a commitment to fund 20 new preschool and 45 new school-age child care spaces.

The Manitoba Centre for Health Policy has released a new report on the Early Development Instrument results in Manitoba. The report focusses on: socioeconomic adversity and children’s vulnerability at age five; biological vulnerability at birth and children’s vulnerability at age five; and children’s vulnerability at age five in three at–risk subgroups of children.

The Government of Manitoba announces "new funding to child-care centres for 900 spaces, new capital and operational funding for child-care centres and homes, and improved subsidies for those most in need, Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard announced today…. Now in its fourth year, Family Choices, Manitoba’s five-year early learning and child-care initiative, is providing new funding for 6,500 quality child-care spaces by the end of 2013."

The Abecedarian model of early learning and child care has been introduced in the Lord Selkirk Park housing development. The model "will include a curriculum that promotes literacy and language development, in addition to a family resource centre."

Healthy Child Manitoba Office has released its 2010/11 Annual Report. "This report reflects the continued commitment of government and community partners in the Healthy Child Manitoba Strategy to facilitate child-centered public policy..."

Manitoba Child Care Program launches Early Returns: Manitoba’s Early Learning and Child Care Curriculum Framework for Preschool Centres and Nursery Schools. This curriculum framework supports staff to develop, describe and enhance their curriculum.

Province-wide online resource and child care registry allows parents to find out about, and register for child care options, including licensed child care centres, home child care and nursery schools. Manitobaparentzone.ca also provides parenting and child development information. Manitobaparentzone.ca will run on a $70,000 annual budget, with initial site development and marketing costs of $200,000. The online registry is being launched at a cost of $1.575 million and will operate on an annual investment of $150,000.

Excerpt: "The province will fund an extra 25 child-care sites, raising its five-year commitment under Family Choices to 54 new centres, Premier Greg Selinger announced today."

Excerpt: "An Early Childhood Education Unit within Manitoba Education will invest $300,000 in early-childhood development to support families and communities as they prepare young children for success and investing $300,000 to increase the connection between early-childhood education and the formal kindergarten to Grade 12 education system. The province will also invest $300,000 in early-childhood development to support families and communities as they prepare young children for success when they start school. The new unit will monitor and disseminate research respecting early childhood development, connect research to practice in terms of using Early Development Instrument (EDI) data."

Excerpt: "Building Manitoba’s skilled and dynamic workforce, preserving and building on services for families such as health care, education and training, and enhancing public safety highlighted this year’s speech from the throne today during the launch of the fifth session of the 39th legislative assembly."

Excerpt: "The initiatives include an increase in funding availability and supports for the sector offered through the Child Care Capacity Initiative program, including: $7.5 million in funding to support infrastructure and renovations to regulated child care services availing of the operating grant program, to increase child care capacity by 750 spaces, with priority for the creation of toddler spaces in not-for-profit child care services; the hiring of a Project Manager within the Provincial Government to oversee and support not-for-profit child care capacity projects; and an increase to the personnel budget category of projects operating under the Child Care Capacity Initiative program, which includes an hourly wage increase from $17 per hour to $25 per hour for developmental workers."

Saskatchewan government released their 2013-1014 Provincial Budget, and continue to make students a priority by investing in the PreK-12 education system.