Meeting parents where they are: more affordable child care in Manitoba

WINNIPEG, MB, Feb. 18, 2025 /CNW/ - Parents deserve child care that fits their lives, whether they're working late shifts at the hospital, finishing a degree or raising a family in a rural or remote community. That's why the governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing in real, practical solutions: more spaces where you work or study, extended hours, and better options in rural and remote areas, so parents can find child care that truly works for them.

Today, at the St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, the Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, and the Honourable Terry Duguid, Minister of Sport, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, along with the Honourable Tracy Schmidt, Manitoba's Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning, announced the creation of over 700 new affordable child care spots across Manitoba. This includes approximately 324 new child care spaces in health care facilities across the province, and 384 new child care spaces in partnership with three public school divisions and two post-secondary institutions for children six and under.

These new spaces build on the child care spots announced in August, which added over 200 spaces developed through hybrid construction technologies at Ready-to-Move (RTM) child care centres in Lorette, St. Adolphe and Stony Mountain. RTM centres are a smart and fast solution to the child care shortage. Built off-site while groundwork is prepared, they can be delivered, assembled and enclosed in just five days—up and running in under twelve months.

As we create new child care spaces, we also need more talented early childhood educators to support them. To help build this incredible workforce, the governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing in professional training and education, including $5.8 million for a tuition reimbursement program that provides early childhood education students with up to $5,000. There's also dedicated funding to support newcomers and Indigenous students entering the field, ensuring more trained professionals are ready to meet the demand. The governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing in the following professional training and curriculum projects:

• The Manitoba Métis Federation is receiving funding to continue their programming that educates and helps employ up to 50 Ukrainian newcomers.
• The Urban Circle Training Centre is receiving funding to support programming to train 30 Indigenous students to work in the child care profession.
• The Outdoor Early Childhood Education Grant is providing funding to child care facilities to enhance current outdoor and land-based programming or create new nature education programming. Grants are available for licensed non-profit centres and nursery schools (up to $25,000) and licensed home-based providers (up to $2,500).

The governments of Canada and Manitoba are thinking outside the box, investing in innovative solutions that grow the workforce and bring high-quality affordable child care to families faster, wherever they live, work and study—whether in big cities, rural areas, remote regions or Indigenous communities. Currently, over 9200 spaces in Manitoba have been announced, helping families save up to $2,800 each year, per child.

The federal, provincial and territorial governments continue to make transformative investments that get more families off waitlists and into child care at prices they can afford. And it's working. The families of over 750,000 children across Canada are already benefiting from high-quality affordable child care. As of today, provinces and territories have announced measures to create over 150,000 new child care spaces. This number represents more than half of the 250,000 new regulated spaces the Government of Canada aims to create by March 2026. Together, governments are helping more families access affordable child care options that meet parents where they are.

Quotes

"We need to meet parents where they are. Parents shouldn't have to choose between earning a paycheque and finding child care that works for their family. We're working with Manitoba to build more spots, faster, so families can get off waitlists and into affordable child care that meets their needs—whether that's near work, school or home. And we're making it more attractive for more people to become early childhood educators, because great child care starts with great educators."
– The Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

"Parents shouldn't have to scramble to find child care that fits their lives. Whether they're working shifts, studying or living in a rural community, they deserve real options. With over 9,200 new spaces announced across Manitoba—including in hospitals, schools and post-secondary institutions—we're making child care more accessible where parents need it, when they need it."
– The Honourable Terry Duguid, Minister of Sport, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South

"The addition of 104 child care spaces at St. Boniface Hospital, Manitoba's second-largest hospital, is great news, and a concrete example of how investments in early childhood education will improve the lives of children and families as our government continues to work closely with provinces to create more affordable child care spaces."
–The Honourable Dan Vandal, Member of Parliament for Saint Boniface–Saint Vital

"Supporting families means supporting childcare. Increasing access to affordable child care spaces allows parents to work or pursue higher education. I am proud of this investment in families, which will strengthen our communities."
– Ben Carr, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre

"We're investing in child care spaces to meet parents and caregivers where they're at to make life easier for families. Our government continues to build the child care system as a whole—creating spaces that meet the needs of families, offering programming to attract and support child care professionals and investing in learning outcomes for a quality early education experience."
– The Honourable Tracy Schmidt, Manitoba's Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning

"We know that health care providers work outside of regular child care hours. Investing in child care spaces in hospitals allows health care staff the flexibility and convenience they need to care for their children, so they can care for Manitobans. This is one way we can support work life balance for those on the front lines and help retain health care workers in our hospitals."
– The Honourable Uzoma Asagwara, Manitoba's Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care

"This is an important initiative with respect to our efforts to recruit and retain health care staff. We envision a day care that is tailor-made for the staff of a modern hospital, with extended hours for people working shifts and a guaranteed number of spaces for the children of hospital employees. Our vision is that the day care will also recognize the hospital's long-standing place in the community of St. Boniface, and our role as a provincially designated bilingual service centre, by offering a bilingual child care environment in both English and French."
– Nicole Aminot, President and CEO of St. Boniface Hospital

Quick facts

• As part of the 2021–22 to 2025–26 Canada–Manitoba Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, the Government of Canada is investing approximately $1.2 billion over five years. This investment will support reducing average out-of-pocket parent fees for licensed child care to $10 a day and expand access to more inclusive, high-quality child care for children under the age of seven.
• The 700 new affordable child care spaces are supporting the joint commitment to create 23,000 new full-time child care spaces across the province by March 2026.
• In February 2025, the governments of Manitoba and Canada signed the Action Plan under the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund, detailing how Manitoba will invest $20.9 million in federal funding over three years to support the creation of approximately 324 child care spaces in health care facilities across the province.
• The Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund exclusively supports not-for-profit and public early learning and child care providers. This is in recognition of the barriers they face to accessing capital funding necessary to build or maintain appropriate facilities, especially inclusive spaces that support families in underserved communities. 
• As part of Budget 2021, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment of up to $30 billion over five years to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners. Combined with investments since 2016, including investments in Indigenous early learning and child care, the federal government has announced investments of nearly $40 billion in early learning and child care.

Associated links

Toward $10-a-day: Early Learning and Child Care
Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement – 2021 to 2026
Manitoba's Child Care Capital and Space Expansion Projects
Manitoba's Early Childhood Educators Tuition Reimbursement

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SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

Contacts: For media enquiries, please contact: Geneviève Lemaire, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, [email protected]; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]; Ministry of Education and Early Childhood Learning, Media Relations, [email protected]; Government of Manitoba, Communications and Engagement, [email protected]