Advocates say a promised expansion of Manitoba’s child-care system is lagging far behind demand thanks to an over-reliance on parents to spearhead new spaces and a lack of publicly owned and operated facilities. The Child Care Coalition of Manitoba and the Manitoba Child Care Association held a news conference at the Manitoba legislature on Wednesday, which marked the Manitoba Day of Action on Child Care. Advocates used the occasion to call on the province to speed up the creation of new child-care spaces and facilities. “Parents are still on wait lists for many years, myself included,” coalition chair Molly McCracken told CTV News. The coalition cited data from a 2025 annual report which found Manitoba has child-care spaces for just 32.3 per cent of preschoolers – a far cry from the national target of 59 per cent. Additionally, the numbers show fewer than 4,200 spaces have opened of the 23,000 that Manitoba promised to create by 2026 using dollars from the federal Early Learning and Child Care agreement. The coalition also pointed to findings from a Probe Research poll it commissioned last April that found Manitoba parents wait 17 months on average to find a space. While the province has taken steps on affordability with the rollout of $10 a day daycare and better compensation for workers, the coalition said the next priority is to speed up space creation. “We need a new model,” she said. According to McCracken, much of the expansion is being shouldered by the public. At present, parent-led volunteer boards come forward to expand or create new licensed child-care spaces through an application process. They’re also tasked with fundraising 40 per cent of the capital. She thinks that that fundraising requirement should be scrapped, so the onus is put on the province to pitch plan, and cost out the new facilities. McCracken also asserted the province is currently underfunding child-care, adding research shows any money put into the system often comes back into the public purse when more parents are freed up to work and contribute to the economy. “We just need to break through and we’re calling on the province to lead this process,” she said. In a statement to CTV News, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt said the province has secured $1.9 billion through a five-year extension of the Canada-Manitoba and Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care agreements. The minister added the province has increased operating grants to facilities by five per cent and raised early childhood educator wages by nearly $5 per hour. “Every family in Manitoba deserves access to affordable, high-quality childcare,” the minister said in the statement. Schmidt pointed to Tuesday’s release of Manitoba’s child care workforce strategy, outlining different ways to attract and retain childcare workers in the province.
