Since the recent announcements of the Minister of Families, Mathieu Lacombe, we live in fear of seeing our beloved daycare close, but also of seeing the collapse of all of Quebec’s private non-subsidized daycares, which welcome more than 70,000 children. .
This represents 23% of children who attend daycare. In a critical period when the lack of places in childcare centers and in subsidized daycare centers is glaring, the Minister and his government cannot allow functioning daycares with qualified personnel to close and their customers to turn to the already overloaded public network.
Our daycare receives as the sole source of income what is paid by the parents ($ 46 per day per child in our case), while the amount received by the childcare centers, which includes the government contribution and the parents’ $ 8.50, averages $ 77 per day per child. The difference is colossal and the private, non-subsidized day care centers barely manage to survive under these conditions. It should be remembered that they are subject to the same standards and requirements as the CPEs (obtaining a permit, educational program, visits and inspections by the Ministry, same educator-child ratio).
What sets the nail in the coffin are the recent salary increases from 15.2% to 20.2% granted to educators in childcare centers. These increases are completely justified, but the non-subsidized private daycares, whose budget is already limited, cannot offer comparable salaries to their educators.
The minister offers them, once again, to pass the bill on to the parents. But in the short term, their educators will take over the management of the CPEs to be better paid. And without employees, they will have to close their doors. The government must therefore urgently pay money to private daycares so that they too can better pay their educators.
Conversion of private daycares
We are also asking Minister Lacombe to speed up the conversion of private daycares into public daycares in order to allow the continuity of services for children whose parents are working. This would make it possible to convert the approximately 70,000 existing places in non-subsidized private daycare centers to a subsidized network. This would also ensure that some of the children registered at the La Place 0-5 one-stop shop would be absorbed. Indeed, private daycares often have places to fill to accommodate children, including infants, because they are rarely at their maximum capacity, given their high prices. By converting these non-subsidized places into subsidized places, they would immediately become available for children on the waiting list.
And what about our daycare, it is exceptional! Having established itself on the street for 11 years, it offers services of the highest quality. Its experienced and attentive staff has not budged, despite the salaries offered in the childcare centers. These educators really care about the well-being and good development of our children. They have stayed until now because they love their work environment. But for how long ? It would be really unfortunate to see this daycare close, to the dismay of the children who attend it and the parents who entrust it with their most precious treasures.
Mr. Lacombe, don’t let our day care centers disappear.
* Co-signers, members of the parents’ committee of the non-subsidized private daycare Les Précieuses Gamineries: Coralie Deladrière, mother of Abbygaell (2 and a half years old); Hélène Lacasse, mother of Adrien (3 and a half years old); Kimani Daniel, mother of Keyon (2 and a half years old); Claudia Couture, mother of Soa (1 year)
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