Early childhood care and education in Canada: Provinces and Territories 1998 - Manitoba

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	History		MB
		1901 Day Nursery Centre established in Winnipeg by the Mothers' Association. 1971 Red River Community College initiated a 2 year Child Care Services diploma program. 1974 Provincial Child Day Care Program was established in the Department of Health and Social Development. It provided start-up and operating grants to non-profit centres and family day care homes and subsidies for eligible low-income families. Manitoba Child Care Association was formed to represent child care workers, boards of directors, parents and child care advocates. 1982 The Community Child Day Care Standards Act, including provision for uniform licensing standards, staff qualifications and criteria for governance and board accountability, was passed. 1986 Government introduced salary enhancement grants to eligible non-profit centres. 1988 Appointment of Child Care Task Force. 1989 Task Force Report made recommendations for improvement in child care. Child care workers held a one-day strike of protesting inadequate salaries. 1991 The government restructured funding, consolidating grants into one operating grant. This had the effect of reducing salary enhancement, redistributing nursery school grants, increasing eligibility level for partial subsidy and providing a daily payment to existing commercial centres on behalf of subsidized children in up to 25% of spaces. Parent fees increased by 18%. 1992 Licensing of new child care spaces was temporarily frozen, then allowed to resume after several months. The report of the Working Group on Francophone Day Care was published. It provided recommendations regarding content, implementation guidelines, and resource requirements for francophone day care services. 1993 The total number of subsidies was capped at 9,600. The licensing of new child care spaces was frozen for a period of time; and the new Acknowledgement Form was introduced and became a requirement of licensing for those facilities willing to operate without grants or subsidies. Parents who received subsidy were required to pay an additional $1.40 per day per child. The "seeking employment" provision of subsidy was reduced from 8 weeks to 2 weeks. Operating grants to child care centres were reduced by 4% and to nursery schools by 50%. The difference between prior and present levels of government funding was to be made up through parent fees. The annual operating grants to the Manitoba Child Care Association and the Family Day Care Association were eliminated. 1994 The number of allowable days a child could be absent from child care and still be fully subsidized (allowable absent days) was reduced from 25% or 65 days to 15% or 39 days per calendar year. 1995 The Acknowledgment Form was eliminated as a condition of licensing for family day care homes. 1996 The Child Day Care Fact Finding Mission consisting of facility tours and public meetings was undertaken with the aim of simplifying and streamlining the existing child care system and providing more flexible support for working parents.
	Recent developments		MB
		Beginning in 1997, a series of administrative changes were made to the subsidy program including introduction of a new parent application form. Subsidized spaces were frozen at 8,600, the utilization at that time. $4,060,500 of unexpended resources was cut from the Child Day Care budget, reducing it by 8.6 percent. Approximately 400 subsidized spaces were designated for use of income assistance clients either in the workforce or in approved training initiatives. Other changes included elimination of the Acknowledgment Form (see HISTORY ) for child care centres. A single funding rate was established for all eligible infant and preschool spaces in centres and homes. "Full funding" (see FUNDING) was extended to approximately 2,000 existing infant and preschool spaces that were either partially funded or unfunded. A Regulatory Review Committee was established to examine the existing regulations and provided recommendations for changes. New subsidies were approved in 1997 and 1998, 50 each year. Through the National Child Benefit, $2.2 million has been allocated to a Healthy Child Development Initiative to enhance/support centre-based and family day care, rural child care and early intervention programs. In 1998, several recommendations of the Regulatory Review Committee were incorporated into the budget announcement. An additional 1,000 subsidized spaces were provided and subsidy became "portable" (travels with the child to the facility of the parents' choice). Funding was provided for the development of new flexible child care arrangements. The title of trained child care workers was officially changed to Early Childhood Educator (ECE). The classification of Child Care Worker I was collapsed into the Child Care Assistant category, leaving three levels of classification: Child Care Assistant (untrained) and ECE II and ECE III (trained). As of 1998, family day care providers who are classified as ECE II or ECE III may charge a higher fee, consistent with the fee charged at child care centres. As of June 1998, existing facilities may submit a plan for approval to establish a casual care fee to meet the needs of parents who only require care on a casual basis. In 1998/99, $15 million was allocated for early intervention and healthy development programs (not specifically child care) and for additional supports for children in low-income families. $10 million of this allocation is from the reinvestment strategy under the National Child Benefit and $5 million comes from provincial funds.
	Key provincial child care organizations		MB
		Manitoba Child Care Association 364 McGregor Street Winnipeg, Manitoba R2W 4X3 Telephone: (204) 586-8587 Facsimile: (204) 589-5613 NOTE The Family Day Care Association of Manitoba and the Manitoba Child Care Association amalgamated in 1997/98 under the name Manitoba Child Care Association.

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INTRODUCTION | FEDERAL ROLE | THE BIG PICTURE | THE LONG VIEW | NOTES AND REFERENCES


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