EXCERPTS:
Parents will get to weigh in on the province's child care services when the provincial government launches consultations on the next multi-year plan to expand daycare in Manitoba.
The government plans to meet with parents, child care operators and home-based child care workers throughout the fall and winter at public consultations across urban, rural and northern regions.
Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard made the announcement at a news conference detailing the construction of a new 80-space child care centre in ACCESS Winnipeg West at the Grace Hospital. Horizon's Children Centre will operate the new centre.
Construction on ACCESS Winnipeg West is expected to be finished by 2014, when the new child care centre will open.
This year marks the end of the government's last child care strategy. That plan included investments to build more than 100 child care centres across the province.
The province has added 12,600 child care spaces since 1999, but demand is still high with long waiting lists.
Comments and suggestions on how to improve and strengthen the province's child-care system can be made at www.manitoba.ca/fs/childcare/consultation.html.
-reprinted from CTV News