Child-care advocates call for higher wages, more spaces

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This article was published 01/12/2023 (1033 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Early learning advocates marked the National Day of Action for Child Care on Thursday, calling on Manitoba’s new NDP government to urgently address the issues of desperately needed daycare spots and fair wages for workers.

Brittany Aube, president of CUPE 3060, representing about 30 workers at Brandon University Early Learning Centre Inc., Fuzzy Bears Inc., and Children’s Den Inc., said while $10-a-day daycare was implemented under the previous government in most daycares, lack of fair wages for ECEs (early childhood educators) and CCAs (child-care assistants) has driven child-care professionals from the field.

“We do it for the kids. We love the kids. But there’s got to be a point where it’s difficult to pay your bills,” said Aube, who added workers received small increases over the last couple of years, but not enough to keep up with the rate of inflation.

“It’s hard to take blood from a stone that doesn’t have it, because (child-care centres) don’t have the money coming in from the government. But we are super optimistic that with the new government in place, we can hopefully see a lot of changes,” Aube said.

Nello Altomare, minister of education and early childhood learning, could not say when the funding would come for child-care centres and their workers, but said the NDP consider it a high priority.

“It has to be something that we finally get right because a lot of people will leave the sector for greener pastures unless they get better wages,” Altomare said. “I can tell you it’s a real priority.”

Altomare added: “My focus is on getting to 23,000 spaces, getting more training spots in place, and making sure we work with the partners in the sector. We have a great staff that have already made many connections. And we have to continue to do that because this is an important priority for Manitobans, especially working young families.”

Lorraine McConnell, director of the Children’s Den Inc., says the previous government not only fell short on wages, but daycares are struggling without operating funding increases.

“The increase was inadequate for our staffing composition, and we didn’t receive enough to meet those targets. To further complicate matters, centres have not received operating fund increases in going on eight years and therefore we can’t meet operating costs, never mind wages,” McConnell said.

Ryan Cardwell, Assiniboine Community College’s School of Health and Human Services ECE chairperson, said the college is offering top-notch training but that wages are still an issue. He said ACC is trying to make it easier for workers to increase their wages, by upgrading their education.

“I would love to see ECEs valued in the same way that K-to-12 teachers are. I think they provide an essential service to society. And I think the money that we invest in education comes back into the real economy,” Cardwell said. “These workers who are currently working as a CCA, as soon as they finish their CCA program, they’re going to see a pay bump. I think most CCAs are making around $17 an hour. When they become an ECE 2 classification, they’re going to go up to $21 an hour. So it is a significant bump. Additionally, they’re going to become better educators for doing the education.”

The most recent annual report from Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning states that 23,000 child-care spots were promised by former premier Heather Stefanson when she signed the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement in August 2021. In the last two years, only 1,535 spaces have opened in the province.

ACC is trying to meet the need in rural areas of Manitoba. The college just announced it expanded its Early Childhood Education program to Elkhorn and is running a 40-hour training course for CCAs in communities that request it. In January, ACC will offer the CCA certification course in Birtle, part time, to accommodate current child-care workers’ schedules.

“It’s really onerous for people who are mid-career to pick up and leave their job, home and family to come to Brandon to do schooling,” Cardwell said. “There is a number of people in the centres in and around Elkhorn who are CCAs, but they can’t just quit everything and come to Brandon for two years to get their ECE designation. This program allows them to stay where they are,” Cardwell said.

» khenderson@brandonsun.com