Asylum seekers, and more particularly asylum seekers, will now be able to send their children to subsidized daycare at $8.85 per day.
In a unanimous judgment, rendered on Wednesday, February 7, the Court of Appeal concludes that the Couillard government’s measure to exclude asylum seekers from the program of access to subsidized childcare services constitutes discrimination against women and violates the right to equality protected by section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
The story dates back to 2018 when the government reinterpreted section 3 of the Regulation on the reduced contribution of the Act respecting educational childcare services, which stipulates that a person will be eligible for subsidized childcare services if they “stay in Quebec mainly to work there”. According to this interpretation, since an asylum seeker was not in Quebec mainly to work there, but rather to find refuge there, he was therefore not admissible.
The judgment of the Court of Appeal confirms the decision rendered on May 25, 2022 by the Superior Court, in favor of the asylum seekers. The case, which was appealed by Quebec, was heard on November 2, 2023.