Despite the significant lack of places in daycare, an owner of two private daycares in Quebec may have to close one of her two facilities including a nursery for 19 babies, due to lack of subsidies.
“I have always wanted to be subsidized, it is not by choice that I am not,” says Nathalie Roy, owner of two installations in the Charlesbourg sector for fifteen years, namely the Joyeux Dauphins and the Enchanted Jungle.
In total, its daycares have 68 places.
Faced with inflation, she says she works “miracles” to succeed financially. And more and more families are leaving for subsidized places. As a result, she constantly has to “start from scratch.”
“There is no shortage of space! There is a huge lack of subsidized places!” she says.
For example, from last August to December, around fifteen children left his daycare after obtaining a subsidized place.
“It’s getting worse and worse. […] It creates a lot of instability for everyone, it takes time, integrating a baby takes at least two months and it’s also hard for the older ones, who lose friends,” explains M.me Roy, discouraged.
However, she specifies that she understands the parents’ financial choice.
“They don’t leave happily. I know that life is expensive,” she adds.
It must be said that the difference in price between a place in a CPE and in a private environment is immense. In CPE, the price is set at $9.10 per day, while the amounts vary between $55 and $65 per day for a private environment.
“It’s a real two-tier system,” she says.
Prioritize existing daycares
Mme Roy does not explain why the Ministry of Families persists in wanting to build Early Childhood Centers (CPE), rather than subsidizing already existing places, to “quickly help parents”.
“Unfortunately, project launches [du ministère de la Famille] are always for new places. […] My only chance is to apply for seat conversions, […] but it is very limited,” she criticizes.
For the moment, Mme Roy manages to pay her employees the same salary as the ministerial salary scale, but she does not know for how long.
As in CPE
It also offers a catering service for children’s meals. She provides the same services, governed by the same standards as a CPE, she assures.
What’s more, Mme Roy received a “high” satisfaction rating in the most recent evaluation report on the educational quality of its facilities, carried out by the Ministry of Families.
Other places to come
In April 2021, the CAQ government committed to converting 56,500 places by 2027. As of November 30, only 8,668 places had been converted.
In the Capitale-Nationale region, there are 758.
A work that “does not come to fruition,” believes Ms. Roy.
Questioned by The Journal to know if more conversions of places are to be expected in the region, the ministry says it is acting on several levels» to complete the network of educational childcare services, either through conversions and the creation of new places. «[…]it is premature to move forward on the terms of future calls for projects [pour les prochaines conversions de places]»indicated public relations specialist Noémie Vanheuverzwijn.
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