The Manitoba government is committing up to $1.9 million to support and protect families and early learning and child-care facilities affected by the new move to remote learning in Brandon and Winnipeg as part of the province’s public health measures.
Families Minister Rochelle Squires says the government recognizes the significant impacts of the current public health orders, “This new support will help ensure parents do not pay for child-care spaces they cannot use and will protect facilities from financial hardship while they cannot accept school-aged children during this period of remote learning.”
The minister noted early learning and child-care facilities that provide school-aged care in Brandon and Winnipeg will experience reduced attendance as schools move today to remote learning, which could affect more than 10,000 school-aged spaces. Parents of children in these spaces will not be expected to pay child-care fees during this time, while the province provides this funding to these ELCC facilities to offset their losses of revenue. Families will also retain their child-care spaces during this period. The new funding will be provided to the affected facilities in addition to their continued operating grants, the minister said.
Details on access to the new funding will be shared with facilities soon.
