Quebec has lost more than 24,000 family daycare spaces in the past four years. A decline that completely undermines the efforts made by the Government of Quebec to reduce the waiting list for a place in daycare.
“The fact remains that at some point, there are other jobs that are attractive too, although we like what we do,” says Chantal Racicot, representative of home childcare providers at the CSN. She herself has been running a home daycare service for 33 years.
Between March 2018 and September 2022, approximately 12,000 daycare spaces were added in Quebec, more than half of them in early childhood centers (CPE). However, during the same period, the network of home childcare services lost 24,505 places, reveal data recorded by The duty. There is thus a net loss in the network, all backgrounds combined, of 12,295 places in four and a half years.
As of May 31, 2022, the Ministry of the Family estimated the number of children on the waiting list at 33,829.
The phenomenon affects all of Quebec, but its consequences are particularly dramatic in regions where there is no alternative option on the private side and where there are not enough children to justify the opening of a CPE.
The decline in family daycares affects all regions except Estrie, where there were only six more in March 2022 than four years earlier. It was in Montérégie that the closures were the most common, with 7,043 fewer places.
“It is worrying to have so many closings, because it reduces the number of places in total, affirms the spokesperson for the movement Ma place au travail, Marilyn Dion. There are family environments which are exceptional places and which have many advantages for the development of children. […] It’s really interesting to have this solution. »
A combination of factors
The Legault government is well aware of the problem. In 2021, the former Minister of the Family Mathieu Lacombe also attributed his difficulties in filling the lack of places to the “crisis among the RSGs” (responsible for childcare services). “The coast, it is steep to go up. We have a crisis in home childcare services,” he said during the presentation of budget appropriations that year.
The minister then took great care to point out that the problem had existed before the Coalition avenir Québec came to power. The “crisis”, he said, “began since 2014”.
An opinion shared by the unions. The first big blow suffered by RSGs came from the modulation of childcare costs in 2014, underlines Valérie Grenon, of the Federation of Early Childhood Workers (FIPEQ-CSQ). The services then became more expensive for many parents, who therefore turned to private establishments. The new CAQ government restored the single rate in 2019, but the arrival of the pandemic has once again weakened the network.
The new hygiene measures combined with the anxieties linked to the pandemic have pushed many towards retirement… or other professions. “Some went to work in the CPEs, some went to work as beneficiary attendants, some went to work in the food chains, and some went to school daycare services,” says Ms.me Racicot.
Some are still closing. Some are tired, exhausted, and others are retiring.
“COVID-19 made some people very worried,” said Ms.me Grenon. Not just for their health, but for that of their families. While everyone was isolating, they were welcoming five or six different families into their house. »
New income increase requested
The Legault government has however made concessions to encourage educators to stay or return to the family environment. In June 2021, Minister Lacombe offered them incentives of up to $6,000 in an effort to encourage them to take on more children.
Then, in April, he raised their overall compensation by 30%. This slowed down the exodus, according to Valérie Grenon. “Many who had planned to close have kept their services open, and we even see new officials arriving,” she said. [Or,] some are still closing. Some are tanned, exhausted, and others are talking about retirement. »
Mme Grenon hopes the family daycare model will survive. “There are children for whom it goes much better in a family environment. It is a more restricted, smaller environment. A cocoon. »
She hopes that new minister Suzanne Roy will deliver the “administrative adjustments” promised by former minister Lacombe and regrets that the incentive to admit more children has not been renewed. From the outset, the RSG will have to be compensated for the repercussions of inflation, according to her. An opinion shared by the representative of the CSN, Chantal Racicot. “The 30% we had is fine, but it was a catch-up. […] We were underpaid, and that catch-up melted like snow in the sun. »
Unlike CPE workers, who are on salary, home educators are self-employed workers who receive a grant to finance all of their activities. “The increase in the grocery basket is 11.4%, and the biggest bill for RSGs is groceries. If we want to feed six children properly and respect the food guide, that’s definitely the problem. »
By the unions’ own admission, however, two factors could convince educators to become or to become home childcare providers again: the obligation for unrecognized private family daycare centers (“unregulated places”) to join the network, as well as the culmination of the pilot project allowing municipalities to create daycare centers with 12 new places outside residences.
But with the labor shortage, home educators have more options than ever, says Ms.me Racicot. “If we don’t put in more money, there’s a good chance they’ll go work elsewhere. »