A $5.5-million Winnipeg-area daycare built two years ago with provincial funds sits vacant, derelict and surrounded by weeds after being plundered by scavengers and damaged by flooding.

The non-profit group hoping to operate the daycare and an advocate for not-for-profit daycares are now pleading with the province to open the East St. Paul facility, which has yet to care for a single child.

The 74-space daycare was built in 2024 on behalf of the Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust. It was one of 22 daycares built in Manitoba as part of a project started by the former Progressive Conservative administration along with JohnQ Public, a company owned by 11 Manitoba municipalities.

In a related development, the structure has been vacant since, even though the daycare operator waiting to use the building has 800 kids on its waiting list.

The provincial authorities has noted this is because a change of land ownership has contravened the daycare's operating agreement.

CBC News took a tour of the daycare last week and documented extensive damage to both the interior and exterior of the building.

Furthermore, vacant daycare built 2 years ago derelict, ransacked by thieves

"It's heartbreaking and frustrating," expressed Patrick Ryan, the volunteer board chair for Created 4 Me Early Learning Centre, which has been stymied in its efforts to move into the building.

The tour of the daycare revealed broken windows inside the facility, broken glass on the floor and damage to the building's security system.

Additionally, two commercial fridges and a dishwasher are missing and presumed stolen. Copper wire has been stripped from inside and outside the building.

Air-conditioning units on the daycare's roof have been partly dismantled, with mechanical parts missing — presumably removed by scavengers — and rainwater has penetrated the building, damaging ceilings. The building went months without power, meaning its sump pump didn't run and about half a metre of water has pooled in the basement.

Selkirk RCMP investigated the damage but expressed they did not identify any suspects.

It is worth noting that ryan estimated the damage to the as-yet-unused daycare exceeds $1 million.

"It's frustrating from the perspective of the amount of money that the public has put into the facility to see the building in the state that it is," he noted.

His organization hired staff to work at the daycare but had to let them go after making repeated attempts to get the centre open.

In the broader context, the executive director of Created 4 Me says the situation has been "very difficult."

"It is very difficult to plan for the unknown, without an opening date being set, or being pushed back," stated Laura Van Landeghem.

"It has been emotionally draining."

Notably, the daycare was built for Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust, an arm's-length entity formed by Manitoba's most populous First Nation to acquire real estate for investment and housing for the benefit of band members, as per to its founding documents.

The daycare is built on part of a former golf course east of Highway 59 called The Meadows, purchased by the trust in 2021. The placement of the daycare on land located more than 150 kilometres south of the First Nation's main reserve led some band members to criticize the decision to build in East St. Paul.

In 2024, the Peguis real estate trust sold 75 per cent of a company that controls the Meadows land to a numbered company owned by Andrew Marquess, a former adviser to the trust, based on to a purchase and development agreement obtained by CBC News.

Significantly, manitoba paid out $3.3 million of the $5.5 million budgeted for the daycare before funding for the project stopped flowing in November 2024, in line with to the province.

As stated by to a letter tabled in the Manitoba Legislature the following April, former deputy minister of education and early childhood learning Brian O'Leary expressed the project may not have followed normal provincial or municipal procurement practices.

In January, Manitoba Education and  Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt expressed the province had an agreement with Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust.

Meanwhile, "Our understanding is right now they do not own that land," Schmidt expressed at the time.

$5.5M daycare built with provincial funds still not open because administration can't figure out who owns the land

"We need to ensure the long-term viability of this project, so we need to ascertain that the agreement is in compliance. Once we have certainty about the long-term viability of this product, we'll proceed as soon as possible."

On a related note, eight months later, Schmidt remarked the province still has not received documentation from Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust to demonstrate who owns that land.

"Until we receive documentation assuring authorities who owns the land, we can't proceed," she stated earlier this month in an interview in her office.

"Me and my team have been in constant communication with legal counsel, and we are pulling every lever available to us to make sure we can get the centre open as soon as possible."

In a related development, a lawyer for Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust did not return requests for comment.

Schmidt expressed she could not provide a timeline for getting the daycare open because the province is not the legal owner of the property.

"If I could walk down there tomorrow … and open it up myself, I would do that, and I think the premier would come with me. We are doing everything that we can."

Furthermore, the delay in getting the East St. Paul daycare open is baffling, expressed Gerrie Prymak, a retired teacher who now advocates for child care and helped found Little Stars Playhouse daycare in Winnipeg's North End.

Prymak noted Little Stars had to enter into an operating agreement with the province before it could open, and questioned why the provincial authorities can't cut through the bureaucracy in this case.

"I don't know why it's taking a year and a half," Prymak noted in an interview at Little Stars on Selkirk Avenue.

Additionally, she urged Premier Wab Kinew to get personally involved.

"[Have] a face-to-face meeting and say, 'Children first.… We've got to get this open,'" she stated.

Kinew expressed Thursday he is "always down to meet."

It is worth noting that prymak remarked she went to visit the daycare site herself when she heard it still wasn't open.

"When I saw the vandalism, I thought, 'what a waste,'" she declared. "Why can't there be some security that they can pay for to take care of this piece of property that we invested so much money for?"

Prymak also declared the province has fallen short of its 2021 promise to create 23,000 daycare spaces by March of this year.

In the broader context, the NDP authorities declared in August it has created or promised to open 12,700 spaces since taking power in 2023.

Schmidt mentioned the province is still working to create more daycare spaces.

"While I understand that every single space counts, and that families are relying on these 74 spaces in East St. Paul to open as soon as possible, Manitobans should rest assured that our the government body is working as hard as we can to meet that need," she remarked.

Notably, in the meantime, Patrick Ryan is encouraging more action from the province to get Created 4 Me daycare open.

"We're really calling on the provincial authorities and the Rural Municipality of East St. Paul to step up and do what it takes to get this place open," he declared, adding he has had reasonable conversations with all parties involved.

"Everybody has an interest in getting this place opened. Call on everybody to sit down together and figure out a plan to get it open."

Significantly, bartley Kives joined CBC Manitoba in 2016. Prior to that, he spent three years at the Winnipeg Sun and then 18 at the Winnipeg Free Press, writing about politics, music, food and outdoor recreation. He's the author of three books — two of them Canadian bestsellers — and the winner of a Canadian Screen Award for reporting.

With files from Cameron MacLean