“People who live in Kanata or near us no longer want to work in child care. » Disinterested in low pay and working conditions, educators are in short supply in Ontario. Five years ago, Johanne Lafleur changed her recruitment strategy and turned towards French-speaking newcomers. Today, “almost 85%” of its employees have an immigrant background.
“I’m happy to receive people from elsewhere, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have anyone,” says the general director of the Coeur des Jeunes educational center. The non-profit organization offers its services in French in Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa, and in Arnprior and Pembroke, two municipalities in the Ottawa Valley, in Ontario.
“I came, I needed a job, they gave me that chance,” says Nesty Bouloukoue, hired almost a year ago, but in Canada since 2017. Arriving from France, he plays his lack of knowledge of English to “motivate” the children to speak French, because English is sometimes more popular for communicating between students.
Using immigrants in French-speaking childcare services is common in Ontario, particularly “in the greater Ottawa and Toronto region,” says the Association francophone à l’enseignement des services à l’enfants de l’Ontario ( AFESEO). AFESEO has also been banking “for two years” on “international recruitment”, which it considers to be the “only way to provide [ses] positions relatively quickly,” says director Martine St-Onge.
However, she believes that the practice is less widespread in more rural regions. Mme Lafleur also notes that in her Pembroke center, most of the employees are “from the region”, because the establishment is too far for immigrants, she supposes.
Not a magic wand
If relying on immigration makes it possible to fill positions, the method does not have the effect of a “magic wand”, warns Martine St-Onge. First, their diplomas are rarely recognized by the Order of Early Childhood Educators, explains the manager.
“The other challenge that emerges when they arrive is that the ways of doing things, the values, the beliefs, everything that governs the education of young children, sometimes do not match [avec] expectations here”, which can require “much more energy to welcome and professionally integrate these people”.
Johanne Lafleur says she has never had to deal with this type of conflict. She also offers her employees a month of training at the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution, of which she is the director of the board of directors.
Double-edged training
On the other hand, Mme St-Onge and Mme Lafleur agree on the difficulty of ensuring employee retention once they are trained. At the Coeur des Jeunes educational center, employees are paid “a little more than the minimum wage”, and quickly encouraged “to take training” to be better paid, indicates Mme Lafleur, but also to ensure the presence of at least one qualified educator in each group, as required by law.
But once trained, educators often turn to the School Board, where they will be unionized. “They’re definitely leaving, because they’re going to get at least $5 more an hour. I lose at least four every year,” laments Mme Lafleur, who says he has to juggle the budget of an NPO.
Unfortunately, it’s not paid at all for all the energy we give.
Employed for almost seven years at the Coeur des Jeunes educational center, Micheline Aoun hesitated several times to join the ranks of the School Board, but she “did not dare”, not wanting to lose her permanent job in Kanata, and because the workplace would have been too far from his home. On the other hand, she says she sees several colleagues leave every year.
Met at the Saint-Rémi Catholic elementary school in Kanata, Yamilee Durandisse also deplores the low salary. “Unfortunately, it’s not paid at all for all the energy we give. You come home, your body has given up on you, you no longer feel like yourself because you gave everything. » Like others, she has “several times” thought about leaving the field, but has, for the moment, never taken the plunge.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.