Post-Secondary Institution Child Care Expansion Project

Manitoba’s Action Plan under the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement provides capital funding for the development and expansion of child care centres to increase access to licensed child care. It articulates Manitoba’s plan to increase the number of spaces on the campuses of public universities and colleges across the province.

Post-Secondary Child Care Expansion Projects prioritize access to care for students, faculty and community members. Co-locating child care facilities on campus encourages parents to enroll in, or complete, post-secondary education or vocational programing. Provision of child care supports meeting provincial labour market needs, providing an immediate return on investment for local economies.

In 2023, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning issued Expressions of Interest jointly with Advanced Education and Training to expand Early Childhood Educator and Child Care Assistant training programs, and to develop new child care spaces on surplus land or in surplus building space including Learning Labs to support hands-on learning for post-secondary students.

In November 2024, with funding provided under the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, Manitoba added nearly $20 million to the existing commitment of $45 million toward post-secondary child care expansion projects. The total investment of just over $60.5 million will support over 800 new child care spaces for children under the age of seven across six Manitoba post-secondary institutions. As well, the Manitoba government will invest provincial funding to create 60 school-age spaces at the Université de Saint-Boniface. Eight new and innovative learning labs will be constructed as part of the new centres at six of the post-secondary institutions. These state-of-the-art classrooms will support practical learning experiences for post-secondary students in the early childhood education field.

As Manitoba increases training seats for Early Childhood Educators and Child Care Assistants, more students will have access to Learning Labs and quality programming, growing our trained workforce.

Approved Post-Secondary Child Care Expansion Projects include:

*School-age only, with capital funding provided by the Manitoba government.

Post-Secondary Institutions Approved for a Learning Lab include:

*Learning Labs are not included in University of Manitoba Post-Secondary Institution Child Care Projects because they do not offer Early Childhood Educator or Child Care Assistant training programs.