(Quebec) Even though there are no fewer than 12,000 subsidized places to be created in the network in just six months, the CAQ government assures that its objective of creating 37,000 places will be achieved next March as promised.
The Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, thus reacted to the opposition which doubts the achievement of the target, considering the worrying indicators of the Ministry of Families.
Let us recall that in October 2021, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) committed to creating 37,000 subsidized places by March 31, 2025, at a cost of 3 billion.
The government assures that 25,000 places have been created so far, or about 70% of its target. In a press scrum before question period on Tuesday, Suzanne Roy suggested that the remaining 12,000 places will be created by March 31.
“One thing is certain, we are staying the course, that’s really it, that’s for sure,” she said. “So we continue to work every day precisely to ensure places. Yes, we are going to go to 37,000.”
The Parti Québécois (PQ) says it is “skeptical” when analyzing the official data from the dashboard on the development of the child care services network.
Indeed, the waiting list for places is growing. More than 5,200 children have been added to the waiting list as of July 31 compared to March, for a total of 34,000.
The table also shows 19,000 places in the “under construction” stage – a measure that the opposition finds imprecise because it does not indicate the progress of the opening of these places.
To reach 12,000 places in March, it is necessary to create 2,000 places per month on average. However, in May, 558 subsidized places were created, in April, 343, in March, 4,108, but this is by adding 2,370 places already existing, but which were converted from non-subsidized to subsidized places, so not a net addition of 2,370 places.
Worse, in July, 173 places were created, but overall, with the closure of subsidized family places and places in non-subsidized daycare centers, only 3 places were created.
“We allow ourselves to be skeptical […]we think that the government will miss the target and the network will not be completed,” said the PQ spokesperson for families, Joël Arseneau.
“The government is living in denial or, at the very least, is not telling the truth about achieving the objectives that it still believes are possible next March.”
He asks the government to explain how it will achieve the goal and within what time frame.
“People believed in it and families, especially women, are counting on it,” he said, recalling that even the government recognizes in its documents that having a place in daycare constitutes a right.
“The CAQ has truly abandoned the women and families of Quebec, thousands of whom are waiting for a place,” denounced MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, spokesperson for Québec solidaire on family matters.
“The Minister (of Families, Suzanne Roy) is failing to create places, just as she is failing to convert more into subsidized places. Minister Roy has lost control of her network.”
The government, for its part, maintains that it is important to compare the waiting list in the same month one year with the previous year.
Thus, from July 2023 to July 2024, the minister’s spokesperson claims that the waiting list has decreased by more than 3,000 children.
“We calculate this way because our waiting list is greatly influenced by the school cycle, migratory movements and births,” she explained in a text message. “It is therefore more reliable to compare the data from year to year to take into account these different factors.”
Last March, the PQ estimated that it was mission impossible to reach 37,000 places in 2025, while a little over 15,000 places had been created by the start of 2024 and the average was around 670 places created per month.