Five months after Canada’s first online child-care registry was fully implemented across the province, more than 1,000 children have already been placed with the help of this convenient tool. This announcement was made by Family Services and Consumer Affairs Minister Gord Mackintosh.
Manitoba’s parent-friendly online registry is now also getting its first major upgrade since a pilot project was launched in Brandon a year ago, the minister said. The website will now have a new map feature that allows parents to find child care along their commuting routes or near a convenient location.
“Manitoba families and child-care providers have proved the value of this innovative tool that helps parents easily find convenient licensed early learning and child care,” said Mackintosh. “And now we have a new planning tool to help parents and further improve and refine our child-care growth strategy.”
Based on recommendations by families and child-care providers, the new online map feature makes it easy for parents to search for licensed child-care providers along a specific route or near a location of their choice. The province has invested $231,000 in this significant upgrade, Mackintosh said.
As of today, there are about 8,000 total online registrations across the province, which represents about 5,000 children currently looking for child care and another 3,000 children registered for future spaces. There are currently 29,811 licensed child-care spaces in Manitoba.
Since 1999, the province has funded 11,000 new spaces, half since April 2008 when it launched its five-year child-care strategy called Family Choices. About 2,660 new licensed spaces are currently in various stages of development.
The government has committed to fund a further 2,900 child-care spaces, said the minister. In total, 5,560 spaces are in development, have funding committed or are being planned for the next few years, he added.
The province will post registry statistics on its Internet site quarterly beginning Dec. 31.
