Families scramble for daycare over wait list confusion

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This article was published 04/11/2021 (1150 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An untold number of families who were on a provincial wait list for child care got a surprise this week when some daycare centres notified them the list no longer exists and they need to reapply.

“As of today, your child is NOT on our wait list,” RHS Childcare Inc. said in an email sent to one prospective family registered with Manitoba’s Online Child Care Registry that the province decommissioned at the end of August and replaced with the Manitoba Child Care Search online app.

The email sent Thursday to prospective families from the Winnipeg child-care centre, which declined to comment, said that although Families Minister Rochelle Squires promised no one would lose their place in line, “the reality is that the department has not supplied us with enough details for us to be able to add you to our wait list,” it said.

“For example, we don’t even have your name, your child’s first name or date of birth. All we have is your email address and the date you added yourself to the Online Child Care Registry.”

Squires said Friday personal details were deliberately excluded to prevent a repeat of the largest data breach in the provincial government’s history. In August 2020, Children’s Disability Services inadvertently sent information on 8,900 clients intended for the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth to nearly 100 service agencies and community advocates.

“My first obligation was to safeguard personal information,” Squires said. “What we did allow for was the last name, an email address and a phone number, not the whole line item of information that we would have received about that family.”

The government recognized that having to contact families and manage a new waiting list required work, so it offered child-care centres one-time benefit of up to $1,200, the minister said. Often the information from the original registry was outdated, Squires said.

“They still would have needed to contact that family to see if those spaces are required.” She urged families to use the app to see what’s available and get on a wait list.

“If you’re a parent who is wanting child care, go to the application and search for vacancies that are available right now and contact the centre directly,” Squires said. On Friday, there were 3,788 vacant spaces provincewide, she said.

The app has an interactive map to filter centres by care type, facility type, vacancies and availability.

“These were very important tools for parents to have as opposed to just putting your name on a registry and not having any contact with a local child-care provider,” Squires said. Many families on the retired child care registry were listed more than once, and it wasn’t being updated, she said.

“We tried to update it and modernize it, but it seemed the best option was to decommission it and revert to a system that was interactive and provided the user with the information they needed,” the minister said.

The switch from the registry to the search app hasn’t been seamless, said the executive director of the Manitoba Child Care Association.

“I think families are under an illusion that they’re on waiting lists, and now are finding out from facilities that in fact, they’re not,” Jodie Kehl said Friday. It’s the latest bump on a rough road for a child-care sector that was already worn thin with long wait lists and underpaid staff before COVID-19 hit, she said.

The online app was supposed to assist families in the hunt for child care.

“Instead of helping parents get a spot, the PCs are creating new ways for parents to wait,” said NDP MLA Danielle Adams said.

“Manitoba has a shortage of affordable, accessible child-care spaces and the PCs are making things worse.”

In its email to prospective families Thursday, RHS Childcare Inc. said it has set up its own internal wait list, and has a process for those still looking for child-care to reapply and retain their original place in the queue.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca