(Quebec) She made Quebec solidaire (QS) languish, but it is now done: the founder of Ma place au travail, Myriam Lapointe-Gagnon, will wear the colors of the left party in Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata in elections. She wants to take her fight for better access to subsidized childcare services to the National Assembly.
Posted at 11:17 a.m.
Three months ago, The Press reported that the young mother of Cacouna was approached as a candidate for QS, but that the nomination meeting had been postponed suddenly. The doctoral student in psychology said on May 18 that she was not a candidate for any party “currently”. QS will finally confirm its candidacy in a press release on Tuesday; Mme Lapointe-Gagnon has had COVID-19 for a few days.
In an interview, she explains that her leap into politics became possible at the beginning of the summer: she finally found a place in daycare for her 19-month-old son. She had found herself in the water following the closure of the family daycare center that her child attended. “We now have a place in a non-subsidized family environment. We are going to go from a place at $8.70 to a place at $40 a day. And it is not true that with the tax credit, we are all equal in front of the costs, ”she says.
In 2018, the Legault government undertook to “considerably” reduce the waiting list for obtaining a place in daycare. However, there are nearly 52,000 children on this list, whereas there were 42,000 at the start of the mandate.
Quebec did not manage to create all the new places it had promised at the start of its mandate. There are even fewer places in the child care network today than four years ago, according to the most recent data from the Ministère de la Famille. This is particularly due to the labor shortage, the delays in opening new places and the effects of the pandemic.
The government has launched an operation to add 37,000 places by 2025. It should be remembered that under an agreement concluded last year, Ottawa is paying Quebec six billion in compensation over five years without conditions with the creation of a Canadian child care program.
“When I look at the government’s balance sheet, we are really far from the mark, maintains Myriam Lapointe-Gagnon. He was not proactive enough on this file. And also, we didn’t make access to a daycare place a right, we didn’t enshrine that” in a law.
Its “workhorse” will be the creation of temporary financial aid for parents who do not have a place for their child, a claim for My place at work. She says she chose to run under the QS banner because she shares its priorities, such as the fight against climate change, and its values, such as social justice.
The current deputy for Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata, caquiste Denis Tardif, is not seeking a second term. To keep the riding, the Coalition avenir Québec is counting on the press secretary of the Minister of Tourism Caroline Proulx, Amélie Dionne, former municipal councilor of Rivière-du-Loup. She is the daughter of a former mayor in the region, Jean-Guy Dionne, and the sister of Manuel Dionne, director of media relations for Prime Minister François Legault.
The Liberal Party and the Parti Québécois, which are slow to complete their electoral teams, have still not announced a candidate. In mid-July, the PQ MP for Matane-Matapédia, Pascal Bérubé, said he was looking for a candidate and even launched an appeal to everyone on a radio station in Rivière-du-Loup. CIEL FM reported that the PQ had tried to recruit Myriam Lapointe-Gagnon.
The Conservative Party of Quebec presents Louise Moreault, health and safety advisor at Premier Tech.