Brandon YMCA receives capital investment for expansion; daycare spots doubling

The YMCA in downtown Brandon has received capital funding from the province for its expansion project.

A total of $600,000 has been invested through the Manitoba government’s Early Learning and Child Care Building Fund, which supports increases in community-based childcare spaces throughout Manitoba.

“We’re very thrilled with the announcement,” says Lon Cullen, president and CEO of YMCA of Brandon. “We view that the government of Manitoba is a partner in the development of our community and the development of the YMCA, most importantly in the service to families in our community.”

With the expansion, the YMCA Downtown Early Learning Centre will be able to double the number of daycare spots they currently have.

“We’re currently licensed for 48, and so with the expansion, we’re going to have 96,” says Audra Newman, the centre’s director. “And we’re going to be offering infant care, which we don’t currently offer there. We’re going to have 12 infant spaces within our program, and that seems to be a huge demand in Brandon, those infant spaces.”

On top of the demand for childcare spaces, many daycares and early childhood education centres throughout the province are still dealing with a shortage of early childhood educators.

“You can build all the hospitals, daycares, schools that you like. If you don’t have people to work in them, that’s concerning,” says Lorraine McConnell, the executive director of Children’s Den Inc. “You might be able to build so that you can have the capacity of 96 children, but you still have to be able to hire the staff to get to capacity and we have a huge shortage of early childhood educators in the province.”

The YMCA of Brandon says it expects the expansion to be completed by November 2023.