It’s been two months since Ritchot’s council first made public the announcement of a new daycare pilot project being implemented in the RM. Slowly, details are beginning to take shape.

Sometime in 2023, the brand-new 6,000-square-foot facility will be open and provide an additional 74 spots for families awaiting childcare. Sixteen of these spots are designated for infants and the remaining 58 for preschool children.

“Having more daycare spaces in Ritchot will give the opportunity to families to potentially reduce their commute times,” says Ritchot mayor Chris Ewen, “as well as open opportunities for those struggling to find a spot at all, which could be limiting their current work schedule.”

CAO Mitch Duval, says that requests for proposal (RFP) have already gone out to find a daycare board willing to manage the new facility. Submissions will be accepted until December 12, after which council hopes to make a decision on who the governing body will be.

“We’re hoping that it’s going to be one of the existing boards that we already have,” says Duval. “However, to be fair and transparent, we have to put out an RFP [that’s open to everyone].”

He adds that they’ll be looking for a board with a not-for-profit structure and some experience in the field of childcare.

Ongoing Demand

While 74 new daycare spots are a good start, it won’t likely put a huge dent in the growing demand for daycare spots.

Lana Redmond, director of St. Adolphe Childcare Inc., says their current waitlist is between two to three years in length. What does this means in terms of the number of children waiting to get in? She says it’s somewhere in the area of 300.

“Any kind of spot is helpful,” says Redmond. “All over the city, all over Manitoba everywhere, there’s not enough childcare spots. So any kind of spots that you can give a parent as a childcare spot is a positive thing.”

The St. Adolphe Daycare’s longest list is for kids needing before- and after-school care, Redmond adds. This is because these kids don’t age out of the program until they turn 12.

While one might have expected a drop in enrollment during the years of COVID-19 due to parents working from home, Redmond says that didn’t end up happening.

“If they had a spot [in childcare], and they took their child out, then they’ve lost that spot and a lot of them didn’t want to do that,” says Redmond.

Lack of childcare spots isn’t the only thing plaguing the system. Redmond says that daycares across the province are also struggling to find enough qualified staff.

She’s hopeful that the federal government’s implementation of a wage grid supplement for early learning educators will encourage more people to get into the field.

John Q Public

The pilot project was spearheaded by John Q Public, a subsidiary of the Winnipeg Metro Region (WMR). It’s funded through a major campaign by both the federal and provincial governments to help improve childcare availability across the country.

From the 17 municipalities belonging to the WMR, nine of them were selected for daycare placement, including Ritchot.

To accept the deal, Ritchot is required to provide a two-acre serviced lot on which the daycare will sit. So far, Duval says no location has been finalized but he is fairly confident that the facility will be somewhere in the Île-des-Chênes region.

At a November 16 public meeting, Ritchot’s council accepted a proposal to give John Q Build the authority to organize and oversee the construction of the new facility.

“They’ll be the middle people doing all the checks and balances to make sure we’re all complying with the same rules,” Duval told council.

It’s anticipated that all nine daycare buildings funded through the program will be built with identical specs to save on costs. To some degree, they will be constructed in sections off-site with final assembly to take place on-site once delivered to their destinations.

Duval anticipates that construction could begin as early as January, in which case he’s hopeful the RM will have a definitive location determined by Christmas.

As for design details, no final blueprints are complete.

“Things keep changing,” says Duval. “We just got another diagram of a [different potential] floor plan last week.”