Creation of child care spaces continues to be a challenge even as fees fall.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 29, 2024
Manitoba achieved mixed results in the first two years of its attempt to implement the federal government’s national child care program, according to a report from Cardus, a non-partisan think tank. Taking a unique approach to child care affordability among the provinces and territories, Manitoba expanded its parent subsidy program based on household income. This allowed more than 2,700 more children to receive the subsidy by the end of year two, falling short of the target of 4,800 children. Some child care providers blamed poor government communication to parents about the subsidy changes, leading to many unclaimed subsidies toward the end of 2022. Despite these challenges, the province reached its parent-fee target of an average of $10 a day by March 2023.
“Signing on to a Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Agreement with the federal government limited Manitoba’s flexibility for funding child care in a way that responds to the needs of parents,” said Peter Jon Mitchell, family program director at Cardus. “Big, government systems look good on paper, but often falter in implementation.”
By the end of year two, Manitoba had a long way to go to meet its 23,000 space-creation target for year five (2025–26) of its CWELCC Agreement. The province provided capital grants in year two for the creation of 1,874 new spaces. An additional 1,058 spaces received funding from a grant aimed at creating new spaces in underserved regions.
An initiative to create 1,450 shared spaces for children requiring part-time care exceeded its target, funding 2,397 new part-time spots.
The Extended Hour Child Care Benefit, which was intended to create 1,700 non-standard-hours spaces over two years, was less successful. Just over $100,000 of the $16 million two-year allocation was spent to create 191 spaces, leading the province to place the initiative on hold.
Manitoba successfully established a wage grid for childcare workers in July 2022 as a key aspect of the plan to increase quality. The province provided operators with a wage supplement and added provincial funds to cover those who worked with school-aged children that are ineligible for federal funding under the Agreement. Efforts to modernise the certification process and to develop a curriculum framework were incomplete at the end of year two.
The province reported spending about $4.5 million in administrative costs over the first two years, a fraction of the $32.6 million allocated for administration.
“Manitoba’s government deserves praise for being open and transparent by proactively publishing annual reports on the implementation of its CWELCC Agreement,” noted Mitchell. “Many provinces and territories refuse to make data available voluntarily or they delay their reports, forcing researchers to fight for information through slow-moving freedom of information bureaucracies.”
The report on Manitoba’s CWELCC Agreement with the federal government is freely available on the Cardus website.
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Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Communications
613-899-5174
media@cardus.ca
Cardus – Imagination toward a thriving society
Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.