With this series, the editorial team goes back to the sources of a Quebec model that is struggling in the hope of rekindling its first sparks, those that allowed our nation to distinguish itself from others. Today: early childhood centres.
November 1996. At the end of his Summit on the Economy and Employment, which brought together stakeholders from all walks of life around the table, Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard spoke of the “magic” that had taken place. Under his leadership, several construction sites reforms were launched, including a project aimed at families, especially women and children. A few weeks later, on January 23, 1997, the Minister of Education and Family, Pauline Marois, presented her new family policy. At the heart of it was an idea that had made Quebec proud: low-cost child care.
The revolutionary project, launched by Mr. Bouchard and implemented by “the mother of CPEs”, Pauline Marois, aimed to offer a better work-life balance and greater equality of opportunity for the 1.6 million children in Quebec at the time. Observed with envy by other nations, the $5-a-day daycare system was not launched alone. The white paper Children at the heart of our choices also promises the advent of full-time kindergarten for 5-year-olds, the establishment of a unified family allowance and the improvement of the parental system. Everything is playing out against a backdrop of financial austerity, because Quebec led by Lucien Bouchard has set a course for a balanced budget with a zero deficit objective supported by law.
The original mission draws on M’s training as a social workerme Marois, who claims to have been inspired by the model of community daycares, among others, to create her own. This family policy marks a kind of reversal of the trend, where support for the family no longer involves only a financial transaction, but rather the establishment of a social safety net that promotes the presence of women in the workforce and the development of children, regardless of their background. The objective is then 200,000 daycare spaces.
The audacity of this progressive policy contrasts with the pronatalist policies of the past, the objective of which was in particular to favor large families. The social context has changed. The social democratic policy promulgated by the Parti Québécois places emphasis on the development of children and the well-being of parents, especially mothers. All in a context of public deficit. It’s a masterstroke.
The CPE effect is quickly felt. Keenly scrutinized by economist Pierre Fortin, among others, the universal system of low-cost childcare services launched in 1997 has had what are considered spectacular consequences on the use of services and the activity rate of mothers of young children. From 66% in 1998, the activity rate of women aged 20 to 44 with children aged 0 to 5 jumped to 79% in 2014, according to a 2017 study by Mr. Fortin. The economist sees this as a direct effect of the low cost of the service—which rose to $7 per day in 2014—which constitutes at most 6% of the median income of women in certain Quebec cities studied, compared to 29% of their income elsewhere in Canada, which reduces the use of daycare spaces.
Is the model struggling today? We have to admit that yes. Under the liberals of Philippe Couillard, the single price was abolished, to make way for a modulation of prices according to family income. The door was wide open to the private. Under a CAQ government, the waltz of daycare places continued until the commitment, in 2021, with the Great Project for Families, to create 37,000 new subsidized daycare places by spring 2025. the most recent data (April 2024) show that of the 303,800 daycare places in Quebec, a third are in CPE. The government calculates that 80% of places are subsidized. And that 31,000 children are waiting for a place.
And the quality of services is declining significantly. In a devastating report released last May, the Auditor General of Quebec (AG) found that 29% of Quebec daycare services do not meet the quality standards set by the Ministry of Families. In addition, the latter is accused of providing “insufficient” and “ineffective” follow-ups to delinquent establishments. Failure rates for the educational quality assessment reached 59% in 2022-2023 in non-subsidized private daycares, and 57% in subsidized ones. What a sorry affair.
Interviewed by The Canadian Press a few days ago on the sidelines of a panel on family policy, Pauline Marois was concerned about the presence of children on waiting lists and the network’s poor results in terms of quality. “It’s unacceptable, what we’re seeing now,” she said during the conference, calling on Quebec to convert more private daycares into CPE. The “mother of CPEs” is absolutely right. It is distressing, to say the least, to witness a decline in the quality of services provided to toddlers. This is a sad diversion from the initial mission.