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New funding for child care centres

The Brandon Sun - 5/13/2021

To help cushion the financial blow associated with moving to remote learning, the province is handing out $1.9 million to child care facilities in both Brandon and Winnipeg over the next couple of weeks.

However, Families Minister Rochelle Squires clarified in a Wednesday afternoon news conference that this money will only be earmarked for child care centres attached to schools that are being shut down until May 30.

Overall, Squires estimates that around 10,000 child care spaces could be impacted by the move to remote learning, which is why the province felt the need to take this proactive measure on behalf of parents and child care professionals.

A representative from Squires’ office later told the Sun via email that of these 10,000 child care spaces, roughly 200 are located in Brandon.

“The centres would (normally) be receiving parent revenue from these spaces,” the minister said. “We’re asking them not to charge that parent revenue.”

Instead, Squires said that her department is currently reaching out to the affected child care facilities to share details on how to access the new funding until schools can reopen.

On Sunday, the province announced that all K-12 schools in both Brandon and Winnipeg will transition from in-person learning to full-remote learning until May 30.

This move was made to try to stem the growing tide of COVID-19 cases that have been popping up across the province these past couple of months, with schools in large urban centres not being immune from this third wave.

If this period of remote learning is extended past May 30 and the attached child care programs also remain closed, Squires said her department will then assess whether they can provide more funding beyond this initial $1.9 million.

However, Squires acknowledged that child care centres and parents have had a rough time even before this recent move to remote learning, since the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many job losses that have forced parents to pull their children out of these programs in record numbers.

“We know that the sector has been in a great state of flux. It is an anomaly to see 4,100 vacancies in our child care sector,” she said. “We want to ensure that all Manitobans get back to work as soon as possible in the post-pandemic era. And we know that having a strong, robust child care sector is essential to that post-pandemic recovery.”

Squires also mentioned on Wednesday that the province will be increasing its monthly investment in personal protective equipment for the child care sector by an additional $415,000 per month.

The minister said this boost in funding will increase its monthly allocation of protective masks from 100,000 to 1.1 million and raise the daily provision of masks for each child care sector worker from one to four.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter:@KyleDarbyson