Manitoba Tops Child Care Equality Assessment

Manitoba's record on providing access to quality, affordable child care services to its citizens is the best in the country. That's the result of a nation-wide assessment conducted by Federations of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress.

Manitoba Federation of Labour President Darlene Dziewit said "Manitoba earned the highest ranking of all the provinces with a score of B-plus while British Columbia trailed the country with a score of D."

The assessment measures progress, or lack of it, in three areas:

• affordability, measured by what it costs parents to access child care services
• quality, measured by the salaries paid to child care staff
• accessibility, measured by the creation of new public child care spaces.

Dziewit explained "Manitoba has done especially well in making child care affordable through its cap on average full-time fees for pre-school age children and providing a sensible fee subsidy for lower and moderate income families. The provincial government has made important contributions to the quality of our child care system by direct funding of programs and making sure that wages have increased. Its strategy of providing public financial support to only non-profit, community owned services has ensured that accessibility to good quality child care services is the best in the country.

"But more needs to be done in Manitoba. Eighty percent of mothers also work outside of the home, but there are only enough child care spaces in Manitoba to meet the needs of 15 per cent of children. However, none of the provinces outside of Quebec can be expected to do this alone."

Dziewit said the real barrier to improving the child care system in Canada is the Federal Government.

"Federal support for the child care system has dropped like a stone under Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. Between 2006 and 2007 the Tories took $350M out of the system. You can’t do that without hamstringing efforts by provinces like Manitoba to improve child care delivery. Harper’s promise to help create new child care spaces has turned out to be a hollow one. No one can take advantage of the financial offer since it does not include ongoing operating funds.

"The Federal government must undo its ideological straight-jacket and fulfill its obligation to make sure that all children and families have real access to quality, affordable child care services."

Quebec was not included in the Canadian Labour Congress survey because of that province's advanced child care and early learning services. With just 22 per cent of Canada's children, Quebec accounts for 45 per cent of the country's total regulated child care spaces and 78 per cent of the total increase in public funding since 2001.