The Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, wants a “very harmonious transition” to the new access window for childcare services, which will replace La Place 0-5 starting next September.
As of fall 2024, the Ministry of Families will be in control of the management of waiting lists for places in daycare, Minister Roy declared on Wednesday. On the same day, it published a draft regulation for the establishment of a one-stop shop, the estimated cost of which is 9.6 million.
“We want to have a very harmonious transition and we ensure that all safety standards will be in place,” she assured journalists. Remember that a security breach in La Place 0-5 led to the theft of the data of 5,000 families in 2021.
By managing waiting lists itself, the ministry hopes to prevent daycare services from arbitrarily selecting the children to whom they grant places. Daycare centers will therefore notify the ministry to say, for example, “I have a 3-year place in such and such a CPE”, illustrated Mme Roy. “And we are going to send the first child on the list to the CPE, in the 3 year old group,” she continued.
The selection criteria will also be standardized. Children of staff who already have a sibling in child care will be at the top of the list. This will be followed by the children of staff, children who already have a sister or brother in daycare, then children who do not have a place in subsidized daycare.
Priority for children from disadvantaged backgrounds
Equally, “the child in a situation of socio-economic precariousness” will have priority, it is written in the regulation, in accordance with the intentions already formulated by the Legault government. The assessment of this situation will be made on the basis of the amount of the family allowance.
Another change, children will now be classified according to the desired date of entry into childcare, and no longer according to the moment of their registration at the counter. Parents will also be able to know where they are on the waiting lists.
Parents who accept a place in a daycare service — even if it does not meet their criteria by being far from home, for example — will be relegated to the bottom of the waiting list.
But “by knowing in advance where he is in the waiting list, it allows [à un parent] to be able to make the choice by saying: “in such and such another service where I am waiting for a place, I am among the first [sur la liste d’attente]so I can take the risk of refusing this place,” said Minister Roy.
As of April 30, 37,000 children were waiting for a place in child care. This corresponds precisely to the number of places that the Legault government has committed to creating by 2025.