(Quebec) The Minister of Families, Mathieu Lacombe, does not guarantee that 37,000 places will be added to the daycare network by 2025, as promised by the government. It would be “dogmatic”, according to him, to affirm that the objective will be achieved at all costs, whereas “a series of things” could happen along the way. The opposition parties, for their part, simply do not believe it.
Posted yesterday at 3:23 p.m.
On Tuesday, during the study of his department’s appropriations – an important annual accountability exercise in which the opposition parties question the government on the state of public policies – the Minister of Families affirmed that the objective provided for in the “major project for families” was however maintained. Quebec promised last fall to add 37,000 new subsidized daycare spaces by 2025 to ensure a place for every child in a recognized daycare service. On December 31, 51,761 parents were on the waiting list to obtain a place for their child in the network.
However, since the presentation of the “major project”, the government has missed its target1 in terms of creating places in early childhood centers (CPE) and in subsidized private daycare centers for the year 2021-2022. Quebec aimed to open 5000, it finally created a little more than 3200. Mr. Lacombe explains this delay by many factors, including a certain fatigue in the network which also managed the successive waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. 19. The Minister believes he can make up for this delay during the summer.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Mathieu Lacombe, Minister of the Family
Could other factors slow the pace and delay reaching the goal of creating more than 37,000 places by 2025? “I’m still convinced that we have the best game plan and, so far, I don’t see why we would change it. If we have to adjust along the way, we will adjust. But for the moment, we are staying the course, ”replied the Minister for the Family.
So is the promise to complete the network by 2025 firm? “I think it would be dogmatic to tell you that we have a deadline and that no matter what happens, we will not deviate from it. […] I think there is a whole series of things that could happen, but I am better minister than medium, so I will stop there, ”said Mr. Lacombe in a press scrum.
The opposition no longer believes in it
On the opposition side, the Liberal Party’s family critic, Jennifer Maccarone, does not believe the minister will achieve his goal. “I want us to develop the network, sincerely. The parents are desperate. I would like him to develop these places. […] But I no longer believe the figures that the minister shares. It is not clear if he himself understands the development of his own network, ”she said on Tuesday after the study of the credits of the Ministry of Family.
With the indicators we have, I don’t believe it. It is not enough to build new facilities, there must also be qualified personnel to be able to offer these places.
Christine Labrie, MNA for Québec solidaire
“At the moment, there is a lack of educators for this to have an impact on the offer of the CPEs that already exist. It would take a tsunami of registrations in the various pathways to qualification for us to be able to have 18,000 more within three years, ”she added, citing the objective that the government is set to add educators to the network.
“We are facing a minister who is a repeat offender for broken promises to create places. The parents, desperately waiting for places, have already had their confidence undermined with the lack of proactivity that we have seen since the beginning of the mandate, ”added Véronique Hivon, of the Parti Québécois.
The study of the credits of the Ministry of the Family will continue this Wednesday in parliament.
With Tommy Chouinard, The Press