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Grassroots group demands child-care changes

The Brandon Sun - 6/20/2020

Parents, child-care centre directors and early childhood educators have joined forces to demand the Manitoba government throw a lifeline to the struggling child-care industry.

“I think that the pandemic and our response to COVID has just brought to light and really emphasized the problems that child-care centres have always been facing, but it’s just worse because of the pandemic,” said Lorraine McConnell, executive director of Children’s Den Inc. and the Brandon spokeswoman for the group, which launched the Childcare Is Essential campaign Thursday in Winnipeg.

When the province first announced all early childhood programs were to be suspended, all of the centres lost their revenues, except for an operating grant, McConnell said.

“So all parent fees, which is 55 to 60 per cent of our revenue, was eliminated and we still had the same expenses.”

Once child-care services were resumed, Children’s Den, for one, was faced with increased expenses and lower revenues because they were only allowed to take in 16 children — half their normal placements, she said.

Child-care centres in the province can resume full operations on Sunday as Phase 3 of the reopening plan kicks in. Whether or not they will be able to do so remains to be seen, McConnell said.

There have also been added expenses in terms of hand sanitizers and personal protective equipment, she said, adding they have had to hire two child-care assistants whose sole job is to keep the centre clean and sanitized, “and we’re still working through what that’s going to look like come September.”

The campaign is also calling for the creation of a sustainable, high-quality system of affordable public child care after several years of frozen provincial funding and is raising awareness about the upcoming release of a report by KPMG, which many expect will contain recommendations that could damage Manitoba’s system of child-care through additional funding cuts and privatization.

“This government has made no secret that it supports privatization,” McConnell said.

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Erika Lesage, chair of the Children’s Den board and a parent of two young children in care at the centre, said she worries that if centres are privatized, the quality of care at some will be compromised.

“There might be higher ratios (of children to staff), less trained staff,” Lesage said. “Child care just won’t look like what it has looked like before everything.”

A petition to Families Minister Heather Stefanson has been signed by more than 2,000 supporters from across Manitoba, the group said in a news release.

The group is calling on the province to immediately backfill parent fees lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic due to such things as centre closures, reduced numbers due to social distancing guidelines as well as families reorienting to work-from-home guidelines. They also want the province to provide the funding that centres had planned to fundraise in their 2019-20 and 2020-21 budgets and provide dollars needed for PPE and increased sanitation practices.

The petition also calls on the Pallister government to immediately:

• increase operating grants for licensed child-care programs by a minimum of eight per cent to replace funds lost when operating grants were frozen four years ago;

• reimplement the annual increase for all operating grants at a minimum two per cent per year;

• maintain or increase the number of licensed, non-profit child-care spaces in Manitoba by committing to honouring and maintaining all existing operating grants until at least 2023-24, regardless of whether centres are closed or operating at reduced levels due to COVID-19.

• immediately fund child-care spaces centres have already created in response to government request, but which remain unsupported by operating grants;

• ensure child-care workers are well-compensated while moving toward universal access for parents;

• ensure the Inclusion Support Staffing Grant is maintained as part of temporary COVID-19 child-care plans; and

• act in good faith when investing federal contributions for child care by using these dollars to support and strengthen non-profit, licensed options in Manitoba.

“Our government recognizes the critical importance of child care for working families as our economy reopens, and child-care workers have truly been heroes helping heroes throughout this unprecedented public health emergency,” Stefanson said in an emailed statement to the Sun.

“That is why we have invested $50 million in child care during the COVID-19 pandemic, including $30 million in operating grants for child-care centres as well as an $18-million grant program to help early childhood educators provide child care in their homes and in the community.”

Stefanson said there are now 801 child-care facilities open in the province, offering more than 12,000 child-care spaces. An additional 124 facilities plan to open by July 1. The province has also created 131 new child-care spaces through a grant program with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

As well, she said, the province has distributed nearly 20,000 individual personal protective equipment items to child-care facilities, including masks, gloves and eye protection.

“Our government understands how critical child care is to our economic recovery and growth, which is why we are focused on ensuring that parents have choice in child care, including in private and home-based settings,” Stefanson said. “We will continue to make investments to ensure that Manitoba families have access to the child care that they need, when they need it.”

» brobertson@brandonsun.com