$2M promised to reserve child-care spaces as Winnipeg, Brandon schools move to remote learning

The Manitoba government has promised nearly $2 million to pay child-care facilities in Winnipeg and Brandon to hold spaces for families with school-aged children, as schools in those cities moved to remote learning on Wednesday.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer, and Education Minister Cliff Cullen announced last Sunday that schools in Winnipeg and Brandon would make the shift to remote learning, due to COVID-19 cases and transmission in those settings.

Daycares are allowed to stay open, but school-aged children are advised not to attend before or after school.

On Wednesday afternoon, Families Minister Rochelle Squires announced the province will spend $1.9 million to reserve spaces at licensed child-care facilities in those two cities, that offered before- and after-school programs for families with school-aged children.

"We want to ensure that we have a strong, stable child-care sector on a go-forward basis," said Squires during a news conference.

The aim is to ensure parents are not paying for a service they are not using and protect their spots. The funding will also help child-care facilities make up for lost revenue from families who have withdrawn their children from care, she said.

The province estimates the shift to remote learning in Winnipeg and Brandon will affect more than 10,000 child-care spaces, a news release says.

Information about how facilities can access the new funding will be shared with them soon, the release says.

Remote learning in Winnipeg and Brandon is slated to last until at least May 30. The funding announced Wednesday is meant to cover that stretch of time, said Squires.

Should remote learning be extended, then the families department would decide on extending funding to child care too, she said.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said he was "surprisingly pleased" by Wednesday's announcement because his party had been asking for it and because the province needs quality child-care facilities to stay open right now.

The Opposition NDP sees the announcement as a "a step in the right direction" for families who may be facing financial hardship, said MLA Adrien Sala (St. James), speaking on behalf of the party.

But the NDP also sees it as "one of many of the scramble of announcements" made by the Progessive Conservative government and Sala said it overlooked families with children who are not school-aged in child care.

For Manitoba parents looking for child-care vacancies, there are currently 4,173 open spaces in the system, said Squires.

In addition, starting this week, child-care facilities are receiving more protective face masks each month, according to the release. 

They are now receiving 1.1 million masks per month, up from 100,000 units per month, it says. Child-care educators were allotted one mask per day, but that is now being increased to four per day, the release says.

The masks are also being upgraded from Level 1 — a basic disposable mask — to medical-grade Level 3 masks, which will provide better protection from the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.