Child-care crunch prompts survey of Manitoba parents with kids in daycare

There are thousands of Manitoba children on wait-lists for daycare, but no one has conducted scientific surveys of parents about their child-care experiences, the Manitoba Child Care Association says until now.

The association has hired Probe Research to survey parents with children enrolled in the 746 child-care centres and home daycaresin the province that are members of the organization.

• Waiting list for child care in Manitoba at all-time high

"This research project is a first for Manitoba,"MCCA president April Kalyniuk said in a newsrelease.

"Parents will be asked to report on their challenges in finding child care, opinions about affordability, preferences, impact of child care access on employment or education, and opinion on possible policy changes such as those recommended by the recent Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Commission."

The survey will be conducted Sept. 15-30, the news release said.

As of June 30, there were 15,078 children on a wait-list for licensed child care, MCCA officials said.The number has nearly doubled since the Online Child Care Registry was introduced five years ago, the association said.

The need for better data on child care in Manitobawas highlighted by an auditor general's report in 2013.

Thesurvey results will be available later this year, said the MCCA.

Further surveys of child-care providers and the public are planned for later in the year.