The province of Manitoba has announced that licensed and funded child-care facilities will be receiving a joint-government funding increase to support wages for child-care professionals.
“We cannot build a Canada-wide early learning and child-care system without the dedicated and hard-working early childhood workforce,” said federal Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jenna Sudds. “The work educators do is vital in shaping the future of our youngest citizens. The federal government is happy to see the province making efforts to boost wage supports, recognizing the value of educators and ensuring child care remains a rewarding career. This investment strengthens our commitment to both our children and their caregivers.”
Manitoba’s early learning and child-care wage grid sets recommended starting-point and target wages for various positions within the early learning and child-care sector. The province provides facilities with a wage grid supplement. This additional funding helps facilities increase wages to meet the wage grid levels. Funding for wages in 2024-25 will increase by 2.75 per cent beginning July 1 for a total additional funding contribution of $10.9 million: $10.3 million from the government of Canada and $600,000 from the Manitoba government.
“Our government knows that the key to a child-care system that supports families in our province is investing in child-care professionals,” said Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Nello Altomare. “This wage increase, as well as more than doubling the operating grant funding per cent increase from last year, will enable child-care facilities to offer fair, consistent and competitive wages.”
The wage grid is a key initiative of Manitoba’s child-care workforce strategy. This funding increase will improve recruitment and retention efforts for a qualified child-care workforce, supporting the target to expand the child-care system by 23,000 spaces by 2026, said Altomare.
The governments of Canada and Manitoba have also increased base operating grants for all licensed and provincially funded child-care facilities by five per cent, for a total additional contribution of $8.97 million, with $2.55 million provided by Canada and $6.42 million provided by Manitoba, effective April 1. This base operating grant funding increase will further support wages and can also help facilities address other cost pressures they have been experiencing including rent, programming and food costs.
Funding increases to the wage grid supplement and operating grants are provided by both the federal and provincial governments through the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. Signed in August 2021, the five-year funding commitment is directed at building a Canada-wide early learning and child-care system. Manitoba will receive $1.2 billion in federal funding over five years to reduce the average out-of-pocket parent fees for licensed child care to $10-a-day and to expand access to more high-quality, inclusive child-care spaces for children under the age of seven.
Under the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, the province is conducting a comprehensive review of the wage and benefits framework for the early learning and child-care workforce. This review aims to develop an approach that enhances recruitment and retention efforts now and into the future. Consultations with the sector are underway and the review is expected to be completed in 2025, noted Altomare.
