Waiting in lines overnight, even in the winter and trying to bribe day care workers are just some of the things desperate parents have done to get a child care spot in the province.  Susan Prentice with the Child Care Coalition says there aren’t enough spaces to meet the demand.  She explains one of her graduate students who recently did her masters thesis on wait times discovered in many parts of Manitoba parents wait more that two years for a licenced child care space and what to you do during those two years.  She says people end up resorting to all kinds of alternative arrangements many of which will be of unstable quality and not necessarily good for children.

The Child Care Coalition along with the Manitoba Child Care Association advocates for a universally accessible publicly funded child care system.