WINNIPEG - The province says they want to make child care and early learning more flexible and affordable, as it unveils proposed legislation that would see parent fees frozen for three years.
Families Minister Rochelle Squires says Bill 47, the Early Learning and Child-Care Act, would better meet the diverse needs of families by creating more equity to child care access, and says the economic impact of COVID-19 has been especially hard on families in Manitoba.
Squires says the government wants to support women who have had to leave the workforce to be able to return to work, while also having strong, stable child-care services available to them. She says the change in legislation would empower more parents and child care to adapt and find flexibility; enable activities to be run outside of normal business hours, so that parents who work non-standard hours can find child care more easily; and streamline the certification process for those who want to be providers so that qualified staff begin working with children more quickly.
The bill would also change the wording in Manitoba’s 30-year-old child care regulations to make grant money available to more child care and education providers. The old legislation has limited that funding to home-based services and non-profit organizations.
What do you think?