Harpaurer

Provincial Education Minister Donna Harpaurer

There will be a couple of new child care spaces for Swift Current as part of a provincial government announcement of 500 new spaces province-wide this year.

"We've expanded Swift Current's spaces by 72 in the past couple of years," said provincial Education Minister Donna Harpaurer. "We are only adding two more, but there is room for them to expand. Our government promised to expand spaces by a minimum of 2000 in the next four years, so this year's allocation that was included in our budget was for 500 more spaces."

The government has increased the number of child care spaces available by 42% since they took office in 2007, and this year's increase is budgetted at $4 million in capital costs.

Harpaurer adds they determine who gets the spaces by the number of children waiting for an opening and how many young families are in each community.

Shawn Mullin talked with Donna Harpaurer about the new child care spaces: