Places in CPE and subsidized daycare centers must be given as a priority to young Quebecers, not to the children of asylum seekers, argues François Legault. A position denounced both by the opposition in Quebec and the federal government of Justin Trudeau.
• Read also: Children of asylum seekers: up to 5,000 more CPE places to be created, estimates Quebec
• Read also: Children of asylum seekers: Quebec ready to go to the Supreme Court to prevent them from attending CPE
“As long as we are not able to offer (subsidized) childcare services to all Quebecers […]we must first offer them to Quebec citizens,” Prime Minister Legault said loud and clear on Thursday.
His government is ready to go to the Supreme Court to prevent asylum seekers from sending their toddlers to subsidized daycare centers and daycares.
Quebec yesterday filed a request for a stay of the recent judgment of the Court of Appeal, which gives the right to migrants seeking refugee status to benefit from subsidized childcare services in the province. The court ruled that it would be “discriminatory” to deprive them of this right.
The CAQ does not make the same reading of the situation and appeals the judgment.
“A federal court has come to tell us that we are obliged to provide subsidized childcare services to asylum seekers, while we are already unable to provide them to Quebec citizens,” lamented François Legault.
Legault makes fun of PSPP
He also mocked the position of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Québécois, which believes that all children should have access to CPE and subsidized daycares, regardless of their status.
“So he has more confidence in a federal court to decide whether or not the Quebec government must offer subsidized childcare services!”, mocked the Prime Minister.
Originally, it was the liberal government of Philippe Couillard which issued a directive in 2018 specifying that asylum seekers were not eligible for CPE and subsidized daycares since they were not staying in Quebec mainly to work. A provision which has been challenged in court.
The PLQ has since changed its tune and now judges that asylum seekers must be allowed to benefit from subsidized places.
A position also shared by solidarity activist Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who accuses the CAQ of “lacking benevolence” by blocking access to childcare centers for migrant children.
“Deep unease” in Ottawa
Quebec’s lieutenant for the federal government, Pablo Rodriguez, also seemed stunned that Quebec could send everything to the highest court in the country.
“When I read that Quebec is ready to go to the Supreme Court to prevent children from attending CPE, I tell myself that there is something that is not working here. There’s something that’s not working.”
“When you create two categories of children, those who have the right and those who do not have the right, I have a deep unease,” continued Mr. Rodriguez.
Alluding to his own past as an asylum seeker as a child, and to his parents’ more difficult economic situation in their early years in the country, Pablo Rodriguez argued that it was in educational institutions like the CPE where integration into Quebec society takes place.
For Quebec to contribute financially to the integration of these young people into CPEs, “it’s an investment in its own future,” he said.
ESTIMATION OF THE IMPACT OF ALLOWING CHILDREN OF ASYLUM SEEKERS TO ATTEND CPE
- Until 5000 additional places to be created in CPE
- $255 million more than planned for the construction of CPE
- $90 million recurring per year
- Number of asylum seekers on Quebec territory: 160,000
Source: Ministry of Family