R.M of Morris reeve, Scott Siemens, says Council was pleased the Municipality was included in last week's multi-government partnership to build new childcare spaces in Manitoba.
The governments of Canada and Manitoba are allocating up to $70 million in capital funding for new child-care facilities, creating more than 1,200 new, regulated non-profit child-care spaces across the province with a focus on the Winnipeg Metropolitan Area, rural municipalities and First Nations communities over the next year. The projects are part of a new partnership between government and local municipalities, and will see a hybrid-construction pilot project using modular building, prefabricated construction process and an innovative building design that can be replicated, readily transported and built in communities across Manitoba.
"We were very excited to find out that we are on the list and able to piggy back with Winnipeg-Metro," said Siemens. "Even though we are not part of the Winnipeg-Metro Region, we were asked if we wanted a daycare. We had a group that had been working on it in Rosenort, to start one, and had been fund raising for it few years already, and so it was an easy question for us to answer - 'Yes! We would accept it if there was something available' ".
This new daycare would be located in Rosenort.
As part of the deal, local partners will provide a minimum of two acres of serviced land with 15 years of free rent and support services including snow removal, landscape maintenance and repairs in order to reduce costs for child-care operators, ensuring long-term sustainability of centres.
Siemens said Council has agreed to those terms, and has set aside two lots in a 230-lot residential expansion happening to the south of the community.
The Municipality's Chief Administrative Officer has also been instructed to help the already-established grassroots daycare group in Rosenort apply to the Province's request for proposals seeking operators for the centres.
"We would dearly like the local group to be running the daycare in the community of Rosenort," said Siemens.
Click here for more information about the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, early learning and child-care development supports and child-care services in Manitoba.