More than 600 new child-care spaces for Westman

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This article was published 21/07/2023 (1016 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The provincial and federal governments are teaming up to invest $180 million in Manitoba’s child-care system over the next three years, using that money to carve out more than 3,700 new licensed and funded child-care spaces.

According to Thursday’s news release from the province, 608 of these new child-care spaces will be established in the Westman region, including 216 at Assiniboine Community College’s North Hill campus in Brandon.

The rest of these child-care spaces are being spread out to school divisions throughout the region:

• 35 spaces in the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine (École Saint-Lazare)

• 89 spaces in the Fort La Bosse School Division (Goulter School)

• 139 spaces in the Southwest Horizon School Division (Souris School, Waskada School)

• 129 spaces in the Rolling River School Division (Rapid City Elementary School, Tanner’s Crossing School)

Assiniboine president Mark Frison told the Sun on Thursday that he was “thrilled” with this announcement, revealing that these 216 new child-care spaces at ACC will be housed inside of the school’s forthcoming Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

Even though this new 210,000-square-foot facility won’t be fully operational until around 2026-27, Frison said this kind of public commitment from the provincial and federal government is a good omen, especially since a lack of child-care spaces has been plaguing the college for years.

“When I started with the college in June of 2010, I put my kids on the waitlist,” Frison said over the phone. “I didn’t get a call that they could get in until November of 2012.”

Just over a decade later, Frison said the waitlist for ACC’s 56-space child-care centre at the Victoria East campus remains a lengthy document, with 564 people currently in line.

The only other ACC-sanctioned child care can be found at its Parkland campus in Dauphin, which can accommodate 28 pre-school and 12 infant spaces.

Because of this ongoing issue, ACC officials started working years ago to incorporate a child-care facility into the design of its new Prairie Innovation Centre, eventually finalizing 18,500 square feet of space for this specific purpose.

Now that government dollars have officially been set aside for more child care on campus, Frison is excited to see how these 216 extra child-care spaces will benefit his students, a significant number of whom are raising a family while completing their studies and work placements.

“So … this expansion that the feds and the province are undertaking is going to make such a big difference, especially for single parents,” he said. “Because if you can’t obtain that daycare, you can’t go to work.”

However, not everyone responded positively to Thursday’s news about a province-wide increase in new child-care spaces.

Children’s Den Inc. executive director Lorraine McConnell, who operates a daycare centre out of Brandon, said an increase of over 3,700 new spaces won’t fix the underlying problems facing Manitoba’s child-care system, namely the quantity of properly trained early childhood educators (ECEs) currently in circulation.

According to McConnell, Manitoba ECEs have been contending with low wages and a lack of support for years, with the chaos brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a “mass exodus” of workers.

Since this status quo hasn’t changed in a meaningful way since the loosening of COVID restrictions, McConnell believes that a massive increase in child-care spaces without proper staffing won’t benefit the development of these kids in the long run.

“All it means for us is that now our job is going to get harder,” she said.

“The only announcement that impacts me, as the manager of a non-profit organization, is money coming to either support my program or to support my staff.”

Frison is very much aware of the challenges McConnell flagged, since ACC is responsible for certifying qualified child care workers through its Early Childhood Education program.

However, he is a little more optimistic about what Manitoba’s child-care system will look like in the future, especially after the provincial and federal government recently invested $11.4 million to expand the college’s ECE programming.

According to a June 21 news release from ACC, these new accelerated training opportunities will include an online diploma program, workplace mentorship and a new partnership with the YMCA of Brandon, where the organization will provide further employment opportunities for students.

“So I think folks are right to be concerned that we need to make sure that the people supply is there,” Frison said. “But I also think that some of the innovative things that are happening in the system provide the opportunity that [means] more folks will be able to get into the system.”

The $180 million in funding for these over 3,700 new child-care spaces is being provided under the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

Thursday’s announcement is part of the province’s broader initiative to establish 23,000 new full-time child-care spaces in Manitoba by March 31, 2026.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson