February 18, 2025 Winnipeg, Manitoba Employment and Social Development Canada
Parents deserve child care that fits their lives, whether they're working late shifts at the hospital, finishing a degree or raising a family in a rural or remote community. That's why the governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing in real, practical solutions: more spaces where you work or study, extended hours, and better options in rural and remote areas, so parents can find child care that truly works for them.
Today, at the St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, the Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, and the Honourable Terry Duguid, Minister of Sport, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, along with the Honourable Tracy Schmidt, Manitoba's Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning, announced the creation of over 700 new affordable child care spots across Manitoba. This includes approximately 324 new child care spaces in health care facilities across the province, and 384 new child care spaces in partnership with three public school divisions and two post-secondary institutions for children six and under.
These new spaces build on the child care spots announced in August, which added over 200 spaces developed through hybrid construction technologies at Ready-to-Move (RTM) child care centres in Lorette, St. Adolphe and Stony Mountain. RTM centres are a smart and fast solution to the child care shortage. Built off-site while groundwork is prepared, they can be delivered, assembled and enclosed in just five days-up and running in under twelve months.
As we create new child care spaces, we also need more talented early childhood educators to support them. To help build this incredible workforce, the governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing in professional training and education, including $5.8 million for a tuition reimbursement program that provides early childhood education students with up to $5,000. There's also dedicated funding to support newcomers and Indigenous students entering the field, ensuring more trained professionals are ready to meet the demand. The governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing in the following professional training and curriculum projects:
- The Manitoba Métis Federation is receiving funding to continue their programming that educates and helps employ up to 50 Ukrainian newcomers.
- The Urban Circle Training Centre is receiving funding to support programming to train 30 Indigenous students to work in the child care profession.
- The Outdoor Early Childhood Education Grant is providing funding to child care facilities to enhance current outdoor and land-based programming or create new nature education programming. Grants are available for licensed non-profit centres and nursery schools (up to $25,000) and licensed home-based providers (up to $2,500).
The governments of Canada and Manitoba are thinking outside the box, investing in innovative solutions that grow the workforce and bring high-quality affordable child care to families faster, wherever they live, work and study-whether in big cities, rural areas, remote regions or Indigenous communities. Currently, over 9200 spaces in Manitoba have been announced, helping families save up to $2,800 each year, per child.
The federal, provincial and territorial governments continue to make transformative investments that get more families off waitlists and into child care at prices they can afford. And it's working. The families of over 750,000 children across Canada are already benefiting from high-quality affordable child care. As of today, provinces and territories have announced measures to create over 150,000 new child care spaces. This number represents more than half of the 250,000 new regulated spaces the Government of Canada aims to create by March 2026. Together, governments are helping more families access affordable child care options that meet parents where they are.
