EXCERPTS
When I talk to my neighbours here in The Maples, one of the top issues they mention is that families need even better access to child care.
That is why our government is working hard to provide accessible child care, so that all parents have the opportunity to choose what's best for them, including going back to work or furthering their education.
Our government is currently establishing a commission that will look at ways to redesign Manitoba's early learning and child care system. Their goal will be to guide future plans and to create greater accessibility to early learning and child care for families who need it. We are partnering with professionals in child care associations, school trustees and early childhood educators to help keep Manitoba on the right track for the future.
We announced the commission from the NorWest Early Learning and Childcare Centre, located at ACCESS NorWest. Our government has invested in 12 new infant spaces there. This helps provide greater access to infant spaces from families across Winnipeg.
They have a wonderful team of early childhood educators at the centre that provide little ones with activities aimed at helping them build strong social skills around other children, language skills to communicate their needs, and to work on fine-motor skills like starting to learn how to print the alphabet.
We are committed to ensuring that our kids have a strong start in life. We are continuing to invest in early childhood education with a new five-year plan to create 5,000 more funded child care spaces and invest $25 million to build new or expanded child care centres in schools. Our goal is to continuing to work with other areas of government and community partners to improve access to early learning and child care for Manitoba families.