NDP vow to improve access to affordable child care including summer months, flexible hours

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Manitoba NDP promise to improve access to affordable child care by expanding the $10 a day program to include summer months for school age children and make child care hours more flexible for shift workers.

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“Finding good quality child care that meets your needs around your schedule that’s affordable and accessible, that can be a struggle,” said NDP Leader Wab Kinew at a press conference Sunday at Paufeld Park in North Kildonan flanked by with party candidates and their children. “It’s not always easy. The federal government has made some progress in terms of investment towards $10 a day child care. But what we’re here today to address is the fact that even when families are promised $10 a day, it’s not true $10 a day child care in Manitoba. At least not yet. There are many middle-class families facing high child-care costs.”

Currently child care costs for school age children in summer months, on professional development days and holidays during the school year can range from $18 to over $20 per day, said the NDP. In addition, Manitoba lacks enough child care options with flexible hours to meet parents’ needs.

“If you need flexible child care, many Manitobans just can’t find it,” said Kinew. “You have to rely on a patchwork schedule. It’s time that we changed that.”

“Families in this province deserve child care that works for them when they’re working,” said Rossmere NDP candidate Tracy Schmidt, who said she found it difficult to find accessible child care when she worked shift work at Canada Post as did her husband.

In a statement, Families Minister and PC candidate for Riel Rochelle Squires noted that the PC government achieved $10 a day child care three years ahead of schedule.

“Clearly the NDP aren’t ready for government,” said Squires in an email. “Our PC Team has already implemented the largest expansion of child care in Manitoba history with 2,600 new school-age spaces including room for after school, in service and summer time care. We are already halfway to our goal of 23,000 new spaces by 2026.”

NDP said it would work with the child care sector and prioritize spaces with flexible hours for shift workers and to ensure child care is a good job that pays the bills with opportunities to expand training. Kinew said the child care plan would cost $10 million annually.

NDP also committed to creating new child care spaces. “We know that there’s a huge need for child care spaces,” said Kinew. “It comes down to accessibility. It comes down to right across Manitoba making sure that there is a child care space near you when you need it. Where the PCs have been very damaging to the child care sector and then all of a sudden have tried to turn the corner in the runup to this election, we’ll be consistent. We’ll create spaces each and every year of a Manitoba NDP government so that we can not only make things more affordable but also easier to access.”

While the NDP would welcome a cost-sharing arrangement with the federal government, the $10 million would be a provincial initiative, Kinew said.

“The fact is affordable child care that actually works for families is not just a social issue,” said Kinew. “It’s also an economic issue. Every dollar that we invest in child care creates many spinoff dollars in spending in the broader Manitoba economy. In short, when child care workers go to work it means other Manitobans can go to work as well. This is a key to a strong economy, the key to a resilient healthcare system, and it’s key to our collective recovery after years in the pandemic.”

gdawkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @SunGlenDawkins