Manitoba Minister Rochelle Squires responds to a question during a news conference after a Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment meeting in Vancouver on Friday, November 3, 2017. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
WINNIPEG — Child-care centres in Winnipeg and Brandon will share in up to $1.9 million from the provincial government to offset their revenue loss associated with the move to remote learning this week.
The province says more than 10,000 school-aged spaces are being affected and the centres are facing a financial blow due to reduced attendance. Kindergarten to Grade 12 schools in both Manitoba cities moved classes online Wednesday in an effort to fight the third wave of COVID-19 and reduce the province’s daily case numbers and hospital capacity.
“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,” Families Minister Rochelle Squires said on Wednesday.
Parents of children in these spaces will not be expected to pay child-care fees during this time, while the province provides funding to the facilities to offset their losses of revenue.
Children who will still be attending child-care centres during the remote learning period are either at high risk or the children of front-line and other essential workers.
Squires said her department will be reaching out to early learning and child-care facilities with details on how to access the new funding.
