News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "The minister noted the proposed legislation outlines five basic principles that must be taken into consideration when making decisions under the act including that: early learning and child-care services should ensure the health, safety, development and well-being of children; access to early learning and child-care services should enhance the economic opportunities available to parents; early learning and child-care services should be available on a continuum that is responsive to the diverse needs of families; promoting inclusion and respect, and accommodating diversity should be inherent in early learning and child-care services; and public funding should promote fiscal responsibility and the sustainability of early learning and child-care services."

Excerpt: "The Province is making major investments in 2021/22 to improve sustainability of the child care system, create child care spaces and give parents and caregivers more child care options to meet their needs. These investments include: $2.4 million in ongoing operating grants for 2,992 licensed nursery school spaces as part of the transition to a fair and equitable single funding model for all nursery school programs. As part of the new funding model, 96 nursery school programs (1,674 spaces) will receive an increase to their annual grant amount; $1.5 million in operating grant funding for 541 licensed spaces including 149 licensed spaces from capital projects which are targeted to open in 2021/22 for a total of over 2,600 new spaces by the way of capital projects receiving funding annually since 2016/17; and $95 thousand in operating support for 50 new home-based licensed child care spaces in 2021/22. To date, 225 spaces will have been opened over four years."

Excerpt: "Both projects have been supported by more than $1.6 million in capital grants through the 2020-21 Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, along with more than $405,000 in start-up and annual operating grant funding. The Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement delivers more than $15 million annually for early learning and child-care investments in Manitoba. In total with the investments in 2020-21, the federal government will have provided Manitoba with a total of approximately $62.4 million over four years for early learning and child care. The governments of Canada and Manitoba are working to extend the current bilateral agreement to continue to support the early learning and child-care sector."

Excerpt: "The Manitoba Child Care Search (MCCS) is a user-friendly online tool that connects families with licensed child-care facilities to meet their immediate or future needs. The MCCS lists up-to-date information on licensed child-care centre vacancies, hours of operation and locations."

Excerpt: "The federal funding of more than $1.2 billion over the next five years will also fund critical services for Manitoba families and children and grow a strong and skilled workforce of early childhood educators, including through the creation of a wage grid to support the attraction and retentions of early childhood educators. This agreement will also lead to the creation of 1,700 extended hour child care spaces for families requiring child care in the evening and on weekends as well as guaranteed child care spaces for children whose parents are transitioning into regular employment. The agreement will also support an early learning and child care system that is fully inclusive of children with disabilities and children needing enhanced or individual supports, and ensure all families have equitable access to high-quality, affordable programming."

Excerpt: "Manitoba commits to use federal funds to demonstrate meaningful progress on improving quality, including: developing and implementing evidence based quality frameworks, standards, and tools for early learning and child care; developing a wage grid for Early Childhood Educators and committing to its implementation; increasing the percentage of child care workers providing regulated child care in the province who fully meet Manitoba’s certification requirements by 15 percentage points by fiscal year 2025 to 2026."

Excerpt: "Manitoba is expanding eligibility to its Child Care Subsidy Program on Feb. 6, 2022, resulting in nearly half of regulated spaces being subsidized. This will reduce out-of-pocket parent fees for families with children in regulated child care by 30 per cent on average. This change ensures Manitoba is on track to achieve a key joint commitment in the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) agreement to reduce out-of-pocket parent fees by 50 per cent by Dec. 31, 2022."

Excerpt: "As part of the close to $98 million investment, $15.5 million in funding for this year prioritizes ongoing commitments made under previous agreements, including supporting: affordable child care by providing operating grant funding for over 1,800 spaces; diversity and inclusion through increased funding for Francophone and Indigenous programming and expanded supports for children with additional needs; and rural and northern communities to build sector capacity.

Under this extended agreement, Manitoba will also introduce two new initiatives to support the ELCC sector in the coming months. This includes: a Renovation Expansion Grant to provide funding for non-profit facilities to expand their existing spaces to meet community needs; and increased opportunities for child-care assistant certification training by improving access to the required 40-hours course through subsidized costs and expanded programming."

Excerpt: "The review was commissioned by the province last year to assess Manitoba’s existing ELCC funding model and to support its modernization, in part by making it equitable across the system. The minister noted the Early Learning and Child Care Transformation report from KPMG is only one piece of information that will be used to develop a better system for Manitoba. Bill 47, the newly proposed ELCC legislation, would lay the foundation for a broader transformation, she added."

Excerpt: "Investing $326 million over two years to make child care more affordable and accessible for Manitoba parents; Creating 716 spaces in new child-care centres and supporting 50 new home-based spaces this year; Investing in new schools, with a new goal to build 22 new schools by 2027."

Excerpt: "The action plan is focused on ensuring access to high-quality, equitable education, preparing students for their future, supporting excellence in teaching and leadership, and strengthening the public education system in Manitoba, noted the minister. The action plan has four pillars for student success: High-Quality Learning: to improve learning and outcomes for students through responsive and relevant curriculum and learning experiences in safe and inclusive learning environments; Student Engagement and Well-Being: to respond to diverse life experiences, engage students, promote well-being, support successful transitions and leverage inter-sectoral partnerships; Excellence in Teaching and Leadership: to ensure teachers, school staff and leaders have the knowledge, skills and tools to support student achievement and well-being; Responsive Systems: to ensure an equitable, aligned and effective public education system that focuses on engagement, inclusion and planning for provincial and local needs."

Excerpt: "Today, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, announced funding to the University of Winnipeg Foundation for their project with the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association Day Care. The funding is being provided through the Early Learning and Child Care Innovation Program. The project is receiving a total of $331,287 in federal funding over 24 months, starting in April 2022. The project will focus on exploring, testing and developing a safe outdoor play area for optimal Indigenous culturally appropriate learning and programming for children and their families, while delivering Indigenous professional development training for staff."