A Winnipeg-area daycare built with $5.5 million worth of provincial funds has yet to care for a single child, because the NDP government says it can’t figure out who owns the land.
A 74-space daycare built in the rural municipality of East St. Paul, just north of Winnipeg, on behalf of the Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust in 2024 has yet to open its doors.
The structure sat vacant throughout 2025, even though the daycare operator waiting to use the building has 600 kids on its waiting list. It also went months without Manitoba Hydro service, as the media outlet Terra Indigena first reported.Â
“We have a fantastic facility that is built. We want to get in to get the child-care spaces open for the community,” said Patrick Ryan, the volunteer board chair for Created 4 Me Early Learning Centre.
“It’s such a tragedy for the community here that we don’t have the extra spaces.”
Planning and municipal documents, as well as a purchase agreement obtained by CBC News, suggest the daycare sits on land controlled by Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust.
Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt, however, said she is not sure about that.Â
Plastic tubs full of toys are stacked inside a daycare in East St. Paul. The structure was completed in 2024 but has yet to open. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)
“Right now, there is some uncertainty or some lack of clarity for the province about who owns that land,” Schmidt said in an interview in her office. “So we are working on our due diligence.”
The East St. Paul daycare was one of 22 built in Manitoba as part of a project started by the former Progressive Conservative government along with JohnQ Public, a company owned by 11 Manitoba municipalities.
The province paid out $3.3 million of the $5.5 million budgeted for the daycare before funding for the project stopped flowing in November 2024, according to the province.Â
Brian O’Leary, the former deputy minister of education and early childhood learning, said the project may not have followed normal provincial or municipal procurement practices, according to an April 16, 2025, letter tabled in the Manitoba Legislature.
Built on former golf course
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, according to its founding documents.
The daycare is built on part of a former golf course east of Highway 59 called The Meadows, which the Peguis real estate trust purchased in 2021. The placement of the daycare on land situated more than 150 kilometres south of the First Nation’s main reserve has led some band members to criticize the location.
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 real estate trust, according to a purchase and development agreement obtained by CBC News.
The education minister says the “agreement was with Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust. The province’s expectation is that the real estate trust continues to own that land.”
However, “our understanding is right now they do not own that land,” Schmidt said.Â
“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.”
Manitoba Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said the province does not know who owns the daycare land. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)
According to the 2024 sale and development agreement obtained by CBC News, the real estate trust will retain ownership of 16 acres (roughly 6.5 hectares) out of the 180 acres (73 hectares) of the Meadows land it originally owned.
Those 16 acres include the daycare site, the agreement shows.
In August 2025, East St. Paul council approved a plan to break up the Meadows land into four lots. According to the planning documents, the land was subdivided for “ownership purposes.”
The Red River Planning District signed off on this subdivision in September, pending the completion of legal paperwork and other conditions, said Suzanne Ward, East St. Paul’s chief administrative officer.
Provincial land titles won’t reflect the ownership of the site until the conditions are met.
Kevin Toyne, a lawyer who represents Marquess, said in a statement the land was broken up to ensure “the daycare lands can be transferred into the name of [Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust].”
The chief and council for Peguis First Nation said in a statement they understand the daycare remains in the name of a company owned by the band’s real estate trust.
Toyne said the province inquired about the status of the subdivision in October.
Lien placed on daycareÂ
The funding freeze for the East St. Paul daycare construction was followed by a lien placed on the structure by Pretium Projects Ltd., a Winnipeg construction company hired by JohnQ Public to build the daycare.
The original budget for the construction project was $4 million in 2022. The late Nello Altomare, who was then Manitoba’s former education minister, approved a budget increase of $1.5 million in 2024.Â
In January 2025, Pretium placed a $2.4-million lien on the Meadows land. That put the daycare in limbo, said Greg Stevenson, the former chair of Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust.
“Nobody could occupy it until the settlement was done with the province and Pretium,” he said.
The construction company’s legal counsel said the builder is working to address the claim.
“Pretium is optimistic that this matter will be resolved in a satisfactory manner,” lawyer Ivan Holloway said in a statement.
Peguis Chief Stan Bird and the band’s council, which has launched legal action over the Meadows transaction among other trust endeavours, said the daycare project was a real estate trust initiative.
“Chief and council continue to push for greater accountability and transparency on all the Meadows projects, including the daycare,” they said in a statement, adding a band meeting will be held in Peguis about the daycare in February.
December daycare break-in
While the daycare sat vacant, someone broke into the building and appeared to be living inside, said former real estate trust chair Stevenson.
The RCMP informed Stevenson it responded to suspicious activity in the daycare and secured it on Dec. 15. There was no damage, he said.
Stevenson was the contact on file even though he no longer served on the Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust, which has a new set of trustees.
The lawyer for the new trustees did not respond to CBC News requests for comment.
WATCH | East St. Paul daycare completed in 2024 still not open:
Manitoba daycare not open because province can’t figure out land ownership
A Winnipeg-area daycare built with $5.5 million worth of provincial funds has yet to care for a single child because Manitoba’s NDP government says it can’t figure out who owns the land.
Schmidt called the break-in unfortunate, and said the province’s early learning and child care branch, as well as government lawyers, are working with the new Peguis real estate trustees to get the daycare open.
That includes authorizing funding that would allow the trust to get the electricity back on, the province said in a statement it did not attribute to any official.
Ryan, the volunteer daycare board chair, said he hopes that happens sooner rather than later.
“It’s a fantastic facility. It’s a beautiful facility. It’s purpose built,” he said.Â
“We’ve had staff members working tirelessly for over a year to make sure that we’re ready when the time comes, and they remain excited and motivated to provide more daycare places for people in the community.”