Province’s move baffles child care group

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/08/2023 (1163 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba organization that advocates for quality child care is puzzled why the provincial government will be paying a consultant to develop wage guidelines for daycare staff when the work has already been done.

Adding to their concerns, said Jodie Kehl, the executive director of the Manitoba Child Care Association (MCCA), is the fact they were named in the consulting process, but were not told.

Earlier this month, Manitoba’s Education and Early Childhood Learning issued a Request for Proposal (RFP), looking for a company or individual to develop a framework for wages in all licensed childcare facilities in the province.

Included in the RFP were instructions for a vendor to complete market research and to consult with the sector, including the MCCA.

“To us, it seems unnecessary to be hiring a consultant to develop this framework for wages and benefits when we’ve been doing the work for the last 17 years,” said Kehl.

Since 2006, the MCCA, which promotes early childhood education as a profession and provides professional development and resources to its with more than 4,400 members, has been working with a human resources company in Winnipeg that analyzes different professions and salaries, including what an early childhood educator should be earning in Manitoba.

The firm then compares those wages to other sectors that have similar skills, responsibility and education — and creates a Market Competitive Salary Guideline Scale (MCSGS).

“The current wage grid that the province released at the beginning of July 1, has a target or a starting point for an entry level of an Early Childhood Educator (ECE) at $20.73 an hour,” Kehl said. “Our MCSGS says that an ECE in Manitoba should be earning $26.86, just under $27. So, we’re not going to attract and keep early childhood educators in our sector if we’re not compensating them the way they deserve to be compensated.”

In April of this year, the Manitoba government announced it would be increasing the starting wages for the early childhood workforce in funded child-care facilities, effective July 1.

At Children’s Den daycare in Brandon, executive director Lorraine McConnell said the wages are nowhere near where they should be, not for people who have been working for years, or those who are new graduates.

“The first promise that should have been met was the minimum $25 an hour for ECEs,” McConnell said, “And yet, here we are, and now they say they’re working on the wage grid, saying they’re going to hire someone else to consult on this.”

“Guilty” is how Chloe Plaisier, an ECE-3, described how she feels about wanting a higher wage. She said she feels like she’s taking away from the kids — “Even though we shouldn’t feel guilty, because we shouldn’t be subsidizing the care with our own wages.”

Plaisier, who has more than 10 years of experience, is the assistant director of Children’s Den daycare and is working on her Bachelor of Professional Arts Human Services degree. She earns $27.20 an hour.

What upsets Plaisier, she said, is people who have been working for “10 or more years, making the same starting wage that the government is about to roll out.”

“It’s a slap in the face to me, and who’s going to take more training just to get paid two or three more dollars an hour? I don’t want to take money from the centre, but I also know that I’m worth something,” Plaisier said.

The objective of the RFP, Wayne Ewasko, Manitoba’s minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning, stated in an email to the Sun is, “To align wages and benefits with employee structures, attract and retain skilled professionals, and provide equitable funding mechanisms for facilities.”

When Ewasko was asked why the MCCA was listed in the RFP without permission, he wrote: “The Manitoba Child Care Association is an important stakeholder and if they wish not to participate, they do not have to. The connection to MCCA in the RFP is to ensure connection to their prior work in this area, which is a commitment we made in discussions with MCCA since the April 2023 announcement.”

It was April 27 when Ewasko announced the initial wage grid and set targets for starting and average pay, and increased funding to daycares by 18 per cent to support wages.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

» X: @enviromichele