Scorched by the Auditor General, subsidized private daycares find themselves treated unfairly.
In a report published last week, auditor Guylaine Leclerc highlighted that 57% of subsidized private daycares failed in the measure of educational quality, compared to a failure rate of only 21% for Centers de la early childhood (CPE).
In an interview with The Canadian Press, the president of the Rally of Private Daycares of Quebec, Mario Ranallo, protested against this ranking.
He assured that if subsidized private daycares were as well funded as CPEs, they would achieve the same result. In fact, they receive 30% less public funding, he argued.
“A priori a newly tenant CPE would receive $320,000 more per year than an equivalent subsidized private daycare with 80 places,” illustrated Mr. Ranallo.
Thus, the CPE benefits from a partial reimbursement of 50% of the GST / QST, benefits from an exemption from municipal taxes as well as financing for rental improvements, all advantages to which private daycares are not entitled.
In addition, he deplores the fact that more complaints are filed against subsidized private daycares than against CPEs.
“Is it because CPEs are non-profit organizations managed by boards of directors who do not want to take the blame for a fault that occurred in the daycare service? Mr. Ranallo asked. But would it then be correct to do it for private daycares which put all their heart into making the daycare service work? »
The president of the Rally judges that there is discrimination there and that “it biases the results”.
He also believes that trivialities between children in private daycares are treated as complaints.
Finally, he wanted to reassure parents: the safety of children is ensured in subsidized private daycare centers, which are committed to the quality of services.