Text of the press release:
Manitoba's early childhood educators will see increased wages as well as training and education incentives under the first stage of a plan that will improve quality, affordability and accessibility of child care, announced today by Family Services and Housing Minister Christine Melnick.
"We continue to build upon Manitoba's vision for child care and this plan will help us meet the early childhood development priorities of Manitobans," Melnick said. "We can now take more steps to further improve wages for workers, increase educational opportunities for new workers and attract qualified workers back into the child-care field."
Highlights of this year's action plan include an additional $11.5 million to increase wages and benefits for early childhood educators, including those who care for children with disabilities, to ensure annual salaries of approximately $27,000 to $30,000. Income levels for family child-care providers will also be improved.
The minister noted Manitoba is also moving to increase the number of early childhood educators in the province over the next few years. Funding to recruit and train more early childhood educators will be increased this year by $2.9 million. This includes:
- an additional $1.4 million over two years for training of early childhood education students at Red River College, University College of the North and Assiniboine Community College as part of the two-year, Early Childhood Education program along with support for Collège universitaire de St. Boniface for the training of francophone workers;
- an increase of $750,000 for a recruitment fund to attract qualified staff back to the field of child care;
- $581,300 for substitute workers to temporarily take the place of regular staff attending workplace training; and
- an additional $200,000 for a tuition support program for students in early childhood education.
"By educating more workers, covering tuition fees for students and attracting former child-care staff back to the field, we will maintain our status as a leader in early child-care development," Melnick said.
On April 29, Manitoba and Canada signed an agreement called Moving Forward on Early Learning and Child Care, the first of its kind in Canada. The total budget for the Manitoba Child Care program, including the Children with Disabilities program, is now $103 million.
In total, over the next five years, Manitoba's share of the federal government's support is estimated to be $176 million. Manitoba is committed to spending all new federal funds on child care.
Melnick said the investments build on Manitoba's five-year plan for child care and will continue strengthening Manitoba's community-based, non-profit child care system. The plan also meets Manitoba's commitment to identify priorities for federal early-learning and child-care funding.
Manitoba's five-year plan advances three major priorities:
- maintaining and improving quality,
- improving accessibility, and
- improving affordability.
In addition to collaborating with the federal government, Manitoba will continue to work with all key stakeholders and consult with Manitobans in building a high-quality early learning and child-care system that is available to all families who need it.