Starting Blocks child-care centre welcomed some grown-up guests last month in addition to its usual wee attendees.
On Wednesday, Feb. 19, Stonewall council members dropped by the local child-care facility to meet up with Jenna Sudds, federal minister of Families, Children and Social Development.
The new ready-to-move (RTM) daycare was selected for the ministerial visit since it’s an example of the collaborative efforts among three levels of government to increase child-care spaces in Manitoba.
Last week, the provincial and federal governments also announced that they would be making further investments in child-care spaces, as well as professional training and curriculum.
“Child care is a vital support for parents, families and communities, and that’s why we need to meet parents and children where they are,” Sudds said in a press release.
“We’ll continue to work with Manitoba to find new innovative solutions to creating more affordable child-care spaces, to reduce waitlists and to grow the early childhood workforce to fit parents’ needs, where and when they need it the most.”
Nicole Kibsey, director of Starting Blocks, said that Minister Sudds took a tour of the building and chatted with staff and children. She asked staff what they enjoy about their profession and discussed the successes of the RTM child-care buildings.
“We were very excited to have the opportunity to share our program and the positive outcome from having the new RTM in our community,” Kibsey said.
Starting Blocks currently operates out of four locations. The main site has 65 children (50 preschool and 15 school-aged). The On the Move location has another 55 school-age children and the Growing Years location has 30 school-age children.
In addition, the RTM site in Stonewall opened in November 2023, and it currently has enough staffing to accommodate 16 infants and 32 preschoolers. There are 26 spaces (four infant and 22 preschool spots) left to fill, and that can only happen after Starting Blocks is able to hire the staff they need for the children.
Kibsey and an assistant work out of the new RTM site each day but they visit all the other locations on a regular basis.
“There is a continuous growing need for child-care spaces, especially school age, as our community continues to grow. But there is also a large need for trained early childhood educators as well as child-care assistants,” Kibsey said.
“Finding ways to continue to have accessible training opportunities for staff will be part of that solution. The Stonewall Red River College program has helped us send some staff for training. Having this program is a huge help and support in staffing.”
Starting Blocks is looking to hire more early childhood educators and child-care assistants in order to offer their unopened spaces.
“With the collaboration and great working relationship with the Town of Stonewall, Starting Blocks has been able to grow our programs and offer child care to the families of our community,” Kibsey said.
“We look forward to continuing this relationship with the Town of Stonewall as our community grows.”
Mayor Sandra Smith said the new daycare has been a great addition for Stonewall. “We are very grateful for the additional 74 spaces,” she said. “Having said that, the demand for daycare spots continues for our community and we would love to be part of the next phase of approvals for the RTM daycare program.”
Earlier this month, the governments of Manitoba and Canada signed an action plan under the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund, detailing how the provincial government will invest $20.9 million in federal funding over three years to support the creation of approximately 324 child-care spaces in health-care facilities across the province.
In addition, through the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, 256 new child-care spaces will open in six schools as well as 36 new school-based facilities, building additions and renovations that were previously announced. In total, there will be 2,600 new infant and preschool spaces in partnership with 19 school divisions across all regions of Manitoba.
The governments of Canada and Manitoba are also investing in professional training and curriculum through several initiatives.
The Manitoba Métis Federation is receiving funding to continue its programming that educates and helps employ up to 50 Ukrainian newcomers.
As well, the Urban Circle Training Centre is receiving funding to support programming to train 30 Indigenous students to work in the child-care profession.
The Outdoor Early Childhood Education Grant is providing funding to child-care facilities to enhance current outdoor and land-based programming or create new nature education programming. Grants are available for licensed non-profit centres and nursery schools of up to $25,000 and licensed home-based providers of up to $2,500.
In addition, tuition reimbursement is available to all Manitoba students and offers up to $5,000 per school year to help cover out-of-pocket tuition-related costs at recognized early childhood education programs offered at post-secondary institutions in Manitoba. Since 2022, the program has provided over $6.1 million in tuition reimbursement and since this January, the program has supported more than 510 early childhood education students.
