New supports for families and early childhood educators in Manitoba help strengthen the Canada-wide early learning and child care system
Supporting the valuable work of the early childhood workforce is key to the success of a high-quality child care system, especially as the number of spaces expands across the country. That is why the governments of Canada and Manitoba are working together to increase the number of licensed child care spaces available in the province and investing in early childhood educators who do important work every day to nurture our children.
Today, Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, joined Wayne Ewasko, Manitoba’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning, to announce funding for more than 815 new licensed expansion child care spaces that have been created across Manitoba for children aged 6 and under, and the creation of a wage grid that will support wage equity for early childhood educators in funded child care facilities, effective July 1, 2022. The new wage grid will allow non-profit child care boards to develop fair, consistent and competitive wage scales across the province, and will help the early learning and child care sector retain qualified, experienced employees and boost recruitment efforts.
As part of the Canada-Manitoba Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, the Government of Canada is investing $1.2 billion over five years to help improve regulated early learning and child care.
Building a Canada-wide early learning and child care system that works for families and children is a key part of the plan to make life more affordable while creating good jobs and growing the economy. As part of the Canada-wide early learning and child care system, the Government of Canada aims to create approximately 250,000 new child care spaces across the country by March 2026 to give families affordable child care options, no matter where they live.
A Canada-wide early learning and child care system is becoming a reality, with nearly all of Canada’s provinces and territories, including Manitoba, seeing reductions in child care fees, and by the end of 2022, average fees for regulated early learning and child care spaces will be cut in half across the country. This target applies everywhere outside of Quebec, which already has an affordable, well-established system.
With provincial, territorial, and Indigenous partners, the Government of Canada will continue to work to ensure that early childhood educators are at the heart of the system, by valuing their work and providing them with the training and development opportunities needed to support their growth and the growth of a quality system of child care.