Province funding new construction for day-care spaces

EXCERPTS:

The Manitoba government today announced a $9-million construction program to create an additional 250 day-care spaces at five schools.

The schools are located in Winnipeg, St. Andrews and Oak Lake.
The announcement includes:

• 74 more spaces in an expansion of Cairns Children's Centre in École R.H.G. Bonnycastle School in the Waverley Heights area of Winnipeg. The child-care centre is expected to receive about $2.5 million in provincial capital support with work planned to start this spring.
• 64 new spaces at a new early learning and child-care centre to be added to Highbury School in south Winnipeg. The new spaces will be created with capital funding of more than $2.2 million. Construction is expected to begin this spring.
• 40 new spaces at St. Andrews Child Care, a new centre located next to St. Andrews School in St. Andrews. The new construction is being funded with a commitment of almost $2 million in capital support, and construction is expected to be complete by the spring of 2015.
• 20 new spaces with the establishment of a new child-care centre program at Oak Lake Community School in Oak Lake. A facility constructed next to the school is receiving about $640,000 in provincial capital support with construction beginning in the next few weeks.
• As many as 74 spaces to be created with about $2 million in new capital support as part of an addition to École Tache, operated by at Le P´tit Bonheur.

Provincial legislation now requires child-care centres to be included in schools whenever a new school is built or is undergoing major renovations.

Manitoba has nearly 32,500 licensed child-care spaces for infant, preschool and school-age children including those with additional support needs.

-reprinted from the Winnipeg Free Press