As the school year in Manitoba comes to an end, school-aged children will be able to return to their child-care programming and day camps will be permitted beginning on July 1, Families Minister Rochelle Squires announced Friday.
“We know a parent’s ability to work may depend on the availability of child care, and many parents use the day camps across the province as child care in July and August. By opening child care centres and day camps, we hope to provide options and flexibility to those who may need it,” said Squires. “I would like to thank all of those parents, as well as Manitoba’s early learning and child-care sector, for their flexibility to adapt to the advice from our public health officials as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Summer day camps for children aged 11 and under will be permitted to operate effective July 1.
On May 12, the province made the decision to move all kindergarten to Grade 12 schools to remote learning in the cities of Winnipeg and Brandon. Further announcements were made about schools in other communities in the following weeks in response to increasing cases of COVID-19. These school-aged children were not able to access child care during remote learning, and this meant 13,198 school-aged child-care spaces were affected during this period.
Currently, there are no changes to cohort sizes for licensed child-care facilities, but day camps will be limited to cohorts of 20.
— Staff
