Daycare at the National Assembly | Better late than never

Members of Parliament and staff of the National Assembly finally have access to daycare for their children. What you may not know is that this project took over 20 years to come to fruition. And without women parliamentarians, it would probably never have seen the light of day. Fortunately, they never gave up.

Did you know, a little miracle happened in Quebec! For several weeks, there has FINALLY been a daycare for the children of elected officials and staff of the National Assembly. We had to wait 61 years after the election of the first woman to the Quebec Parliament, Marie-Claire Kirkland, to get there.

This is currently a one-year pilot project, but it is hard to see how it could NOT work. It’s such an essential need.

What is good about this daycare, which can accommodate four infants as well as children aged 10 and under, is that its schedule fits with that of parliamentarians. They sit later? It is open. Is it holiday? It’s closed. It is the Maison de la famille Chutes-Chaudières which manages and provides qualified educators.

We were leaving of far

We often wonder what the presence of women in politics changes and why parity is important. Here is a concrete example. As Chantal Soucy, Member of Parliament for Saint-Hyacinthe and Vice-President of the National Assembly, told me so well, when the majority of elected officials were 60-year-old men, daycare was not a concern.

The women parliamentarians I spoke to for this column all stressed the same thing to me: before 2020, there was not even a changing table or a breastfeeding room in the National Assembly.

“When I was elected in 2012, it was one of the first things I noticed,” Nathalie Roy, now president of the National Assembly, told me. Children had no place in the people’s house, I found it to be an aberration. » Since 2020, there has been one changing table per floor.

Marwah Rizqy remembers her first visit to the National Assembly with baby Gabriel: “I had to go to several bathrooms before finding one,” the member for Saint-Laurent tells me.

She considers herself lucky, her son has a place in CPE. But as both his parents are elected officials, little Gabriel will still be a client of the Conseil des petits Trésors (the very cute name of the daycare)!

“I arrive at 7 a.m. and finish around 6:30-7:30 p.m.,” adds M^me Rizqy. I cannot ask a political aide to hold my child while I sit on a committee even though, I must say, administrative employees have already held him during a question period. Daycare is necessary! »

We remember CAQ MP Valérie Schmaltz, who crossed the room to pick up little Gabriel during a speech by Marwah Rizqy. This very human scene is commonplace among elected women in Quebec, insists the Liberal MP. “People don’t see it, but there is incredible solidarity between women, regardless of party, it’s very touching. »

A real relay race

The daycare is the result of a loooong amount of work behind the scenes that spans more than 20 years and which, unsurprisingly, has mostly been driven by women. “Different scenarios were studied in 2000, but there were too many constraints and significant costs, so we gave up,” Chantal Soucy explains to me.

The issue rebounded in 2017 when the former president of the National Assembly Jacques Chagnon and his right-hand man, Michel Bonsaint, planned the expansion of the National Assembly. Women are back at it: can we provide space for a daycare? Lise Lavallée, then CAQ deputy in Repentigny, sent a letter to this effect. Then Chantal Soucy has an exchange with Jacques Chagnon. “I remember the conversation very well,” she says. I was told: well, let’s see, a daycare at the National Assembly…”

The president’s office still conducts a survey, but it does it during the summer. Needless to say, the response rate is close to 0%…

The tide is turning in the October 2018 elections which mark the arrival of several young people to the National Assembly. “There were a dozen elected officials aged 35 and under in the Circle of Young Parliamentarians,” recalls the former Quebec Solidaire MP now in the race to become co-spokesperson for the party, Émilise Lessard-Therrien. Work-life balance often came up in our discussions. Several of us lived far from Quebec and were therefore far from our network. I already had one child and I wanted more and I wanted to take them with me. A daycare was fundamental. »

Several elected officials told me that there was a real fear that the population would see daycare as a privilege. It would be a shame. If we want young people in the National Assembly, we have to make their lives easier.

Finally, after a second survey in 2019 and a change in the law to allow childcare in a legislative assembly, the project was launched.

A sign of opening

I am realistic. Daycare alone won’t be enough to convince someone to go into politics, but it is a sign of openness, a way of saying to women (and the fathers involved): you have a place here , we are no longer in the 1950s.

“It can be a tool to attract young women,” confirms Nathalie Roy, who is keen to promote the place of women in politics. The President of the National Assembly would like other measures to be adopted in the coming years.

Chantal Soucy reminds me that there was a time when elected officials sat until midnight. “Our leader Simon Jolin-Barrette, himself a father of young children, agreed with the other parties to adapt the schedules. » With some exceptions, elected officials sit in the morning rather than late in the evening. And the National Assembly suspends its work for two weeks during the school break.

“It’s the theory of small steps,” sums up Marwah Rizqy well. The possibility of electronic voting from our office also makes things easier. Now, we should talk about real parental leave for elected officials if we want to attract, and above all keep, young people who have their tongues on the ground trying to reconcile everything. »

Completely agree with her!