(Quebec) Far from her objective of having converted the places in the unsubsidized private daycare network into places with reduced contributions by 2027, the Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, affirms that she nevertheless maintains the “intention » to “continue to make conversions as much as possible”, but adds that we must also “take into account the economic context”.
In August 2022, a few days before the start of the electoral campaign which brought the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) back to power, the former Minister of Families, Mathieu Lacombe, was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Geneviève Guilbault to announce that his party would inject 1.4 billion over five years to convert all unsubsidized daycare places into subsidized places. This conversion, he announced, targeted no less than 56,000 places in unsubsidized daycare centers.
“If we want parents to be able to go to work in a context of labor shortage, if we want parents to be able to cope with inflation, in particular, we must give them access to the rate of $8.70 “, he said.
This promise came back into the news on Tuesday, as part of the study of the budgetary appropriations of the Ministry of Families, an important annual accountability exercise in Quebec. Opposition deputies questioned the minister on achieving the objective, in the context where 8,618 places were converted as of March 31 and the latest budget provides for the conversion of 1,000 additional places this year.
“We maintain that we intend to continue the conversion,” replied the minister, adding that the economic context must also be taken into account. The latest budget tabled by the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, forecasts a deficit of $11 billion, almost four times more than expected, and postpones a return to balanced budgets in five years.
Quebec maintains the course of the “Great project”
Furthermore, the Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, remains focused on the government objective of having added more than 37,000 additional subsidized places to the recognized network of educational childcare services by March 31, 2025 , as the “major project for families” promises.
According to data as of February 29, that is to say the most recent statistics provided by Quebec in its dashboard on the development of daycare centers, the network’s completion rate now reaches 94.3%. Currently, 15,930 subsidized places have been added and 21,978 places are still in progress.
Once again questioned by the opposition as to whether the target of the major project was achievable, given the deadlines for creating new places, Mme Roy affirmed that she will “continue to do everything possible to achieve the objectives”.
The minister also promised to soon reveal new information concerning the prefabricated CPE project which could accelerate certain deadlines. She also recognized that regions of Quebec will always have a shortage of places, even once the major project is completed, for demographic reasons such as the movement of families between regions.