During the economic update, Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland welcomed the success of reducing child care costs in the country. But in Ontario, French-speaking daycares do not perceive the measure as a complete success.
“If Minister Freeland says that she succeeded in her bet, for all practical purposes, it is true, because the costs have decreased,” concedes the director of the Francophone Association for the Education of Children’s Services of Ontario (AFESEO), Martine St-Onge. “And we wouldn’t want it any other way. We agree, it makes no sense for parents to pay exorbitant fees. But on the other hand, when we look at it from a supplier perspective, there is a big piece missing from this puzzle. »
In March 2022, the Ontario and federal governments implemented a five-year plan to reduce the cost of child care to an average of $10 per day. If the subsidies make it possible to compensate for the difference in fees, they are not sufficient to increase the salaries of educators, argues Mme St-Onge. “Currently, if the system works, it is because the educational staff do not earn much. If we paid it its fair value, it is certain that the coffers would explode. »
However, “there is nothing that includes in the financing contract the increase in salaries or the increase in quality (of working conditions). The money is used to reduce costs for parents. »
So, in the context of a “glaring shortage of educational staff”, “the waiting lists are growing”, she laments. “The problem is there has been no money to improve the system. »
“By reducing prices, everyone can send their children to daycare. But for me, the problem with that is that it’s all well and good, but I don’t have enough employees to meet the demand,” he told Duty the general director of the Coeur des jeunesse educational center, Johanne Lafleur, last September.
“We took an image of the sector, and when the funding arrived, we said: we freeze this image in time and we finance the system as it is at the moment. The problem is that […] it’s even worse now,” criticizes AFESEO, without however advancing whether the responsibility for the lack of subsidies lies with the federal or provincial government.
No long-term financing
For his part, the general director of the National Commission of Francophone Parents (CNPF), Jean-Luc Racine, welcomes the objective of the liberal program of reducing fees on a national scale, even if he judges that it “remains still a lot of work to do.” “There is some catching up to do, and we don’t see that in the communities. »
Two weeks ago, the Senate refused to include in Bill C-35 on daycares a federal funding obligation for childcare services for linguistic minorities.
Initially, the bill did not include “any mention of the question of official languages”, recalls Mr. Racine, who says he is “very very happy” to have been able to “have four modifications adopted in the human resources committee”. But the Fifth Amendment was rejected.
The CNPF wanted the article of the bill in question to commit the Government of Canada “to maintaining long-term funding” for childcare services intended for “official language minority communities”, in the same way as we mentions centers “intended for indigenous peoples”.
“We end up with nothing in terms of financing,” comments Mme St-Onge. “It would have forced the federal government to negotiate firm and precise agreements regarding the funding granted to French-speaking childcare services,” defends Mr. Racine, who says he has “very little hope” that the bill will change during the its third reading in the Senate, which is expected to end Friday.
“The consequence is that the commitment will remain vague and will depend on the goodwill of each of the provinces and territories. And that’s what we’re seeing at the moment,” he says, emphasizing that in the majority of provinces, the number of French-speaking daycare places is much lower than the number of rights holders.
“For the moment, (in Canada), we are barely managing to serve 20% of Francophones aged 0 to 4. So that means that four out of five young people risk ending up in an English-speaking daycare. […] We have some catching up to do. »
Emergence of informal networks
In Ontario municipalities, which manage daycares, “the desire to serve the French-speaking community is not always present,” indicates Mr. Racine. “We realize that French speakers do not benefit from the increase in places, because we are not at full capacity, due to the shortage, not because there is no need,” adds Mme St-Onge. […] And that, for French speakers, can mean the start of assimilation. »
In some regions, parents can wait more than three years before obtaining a place in daycare for their child. And since French-speaking places are not “prioritized”, and “parents will continue to need services, people will decide to offer services either at home or privately, but not in an approved way”, she warns, speaking of the emergence of an “informal parallel network”. “And that, we can expect the best or the worst, because it is not regulated. »
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.