Manitoba families in rural and First Nations communities will be better able to access affordable child care following a $94-million total investment from the governments of Canada and Manitoba in the two phases of the ready-to-move child-care project to create a total of 1,670 new child-care spaces.
“The Government of Canada is proud to announce these additional child-care spaces for rural and First Nations communities,” said federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould. “The ready-to-move pilot project is another example how the Canada-wide system leverages innovation and collaboration between federal, provincial, municipal, and First Nations communities to ensure that every family, no matter where they live, has access to high-quality and affordable child care.”
The ready-to-move child-care project is a partnership between the governments of Canada and Manitoba, municipal governments and First Nation communities to develop new child-care facilities in less than a year in areas with a demonstrated need for child-care spaces.
“The Manitoba government is making investments to ensure families in rural and First Nations communities have access to affordable child care,” said Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko. “To achieve this goal, our government is taking an innovative approach through ready-to-move construction technology to create child-care spaces more quickly.”
Based on the success of the first phase of the project, the second phase was expanded to increase to an additional 1,004 spaces in 14 facilities for a project total of 1,670 new spaces, and total of 23 new centres as a whole, the minister noted, adding that new facilities approved in the second phase of the project are expected to be operational before the end of the year.
“Our community continues to grow and thrive, which means our services need to continue to grow to serve our constituents,” said Mayor Armand Poirier, Rural Municipality of Tache. “The new child-care spaces in our rural municipality open up opportunities for our community members, enabling them to put their children in daycare close to home and fully participate in the workforce. I would like to thank the governments of Canada and Manitoba for working together with us to make these new ready-to-move daycares a reality to provide more options for families in Tache.”
Construction is now underway on sites announced last November during the first phase of the project with construction slated to begin at other sites in late spring 2023. Eligible applicants provided serviced land rent free for 15 years to the child-care provider, as well as building support services and maintenance and repair commitments.
“It takes a village to raise a child and today’s announcement shows we have an incredible village and support system,” said Melissa Marion, director, Tache Community Day Care. “Today is an exciting moment for the child-care community. Every child deserves access to a safe, inclusive, high-quality early learning child-care program. These new spaces will help us meet the needs of our community and provide a safe place where Tache children can grow and learn.”
The child-care spaces being developed with this investment are part of the Manitoba government’s commitment to develop 23,000 new, regulated not-for-profit child-care spaces for children under age seven across the province by 2026.
