Daycare conversions: an unknown plan and compromised spaces

The conversion of non-subsidized places is one of the measures identified by the Legault government to complete the early childhood education network in Quebec by 2025.

In addition to the creation of more than 37,000 new places in Early childhood CenterCPE at the single rate of $8.70, Quebec says it is ready to convert a considerable number of unsubsidized places, which are currently much more expensive for parents, in order to restore fairness between families.

In the first case, the Legault government has fallen behind and pledged on Tuesday to create 10,000 new such places this year. As for conversions, it’s been radio silence for months.

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A year and a half after the start of a pilot project and six months after the presentation of the Big project for families, the province’s 1,300 owners of unsubsidized child care centers hoped to obtain answers from the minister during a meeting private, held online in mid-April.

However, despite repeated requests from officials of the Association des daycares non-subsidised en installation (AGNSI), Mathieu Lacombe has provided no information as to when, how much, at what rate and according to what criteria the daycare places will be converted to the subsidized network.

Pressed with questions, the minister undertook to provide a timetable before the start of the election campaign, somewhere between now and the end of the summer. His office confirms this, without giving further details. In the network, it is expected that the Prime Minister himself will make this announcement.

Our interview requests about conversions have gone unheeded in recent weeks at Mathieu Lacombe’s office.

Looking for a signal

For some owners of unsubsidized daycares, conversion will become an election issue if what will be presented this summer does not meet expectations.

According to David Haddaoui, president of theAssociation of non-subsidized daycares in facilitiesAGNSI, it will not only require a precise timetable to allow its members to prepare, but also a clear signal towards a massive conversion. This signal will ideally be money sounding ready to be invested by the government.

Because if Quebec has quantified its major project at three billion dollars over four years, this amount excludes for the moment the conversions of unsubsidized daycare centers. A subsidized daycare receives nearly $60 from the state per day per place.

The associations of unsubsidized daycares remind us that the money is there, especially with the transfer of six billion from Ottawa to Quebec over five years.

Mr. Haddaoui hopes that the Legault government will announce a significant number of places to convert within a reasonable time, that is to say fairly quickly. It’s gonna take a number [de places] so that we can see the will of the governmenthe said in a telephone interview.

During the meeting with the owners, of which it was possible to consult a recording, Minister Lacombe was reassuring. I don’t want you to close your doors. I want to protect your placeshe insisted.

Not everything will be converted

If he has not yet committed himself, the minister gave clues to the government’s vision during the meeting with AGNSI.

In particular, he suggested that not all non-subsidized daycares would be converted. If we convert everything without asking questions, it’s a disaster foretold, did he declare. The minister said he was sensitive to the waste of public funds in his approach.

According to him, not all environments offer the quality required to meet the requirements imposed by the Ministère de la Famille. To which AGNSI replies that it is impossible to achieve the same level of quality by being underfunded compared to subsidized daycare centers and Early childhood CenterCPE.

According to David Haddaoui, the minister can no longer to hide behind this notion of quality to slow down the conversion. Instead, he suggests that the government support communities wishing to convert and help them meet the criteria for obtaining a permit.

During the April meeting, Mr. Lacombe also mentioned the importance of training managers in the accountability process and the budgetary rules that must be respected when the State pays out subsidies. He hammered home the need to take the time to do things right to avoid to screw up the project.

He also pleaded that he had to respond adequately to the needs according to the regions. He cited the example of two non-subsidized daycare centers in the same territory where there is already a surplus of daycare spaces. What do we do? You can’t convert bothhe said, adding that Quebec had to find the right criteria that will allow it to decide if it is faced with this kind of decision.

Is it the quality evaluation, the complaints, your seniority, the evaluation of your premises?he listed.

Towards closures?

Before embarking on the expanded conversion, Quebec reiterates that it must first complete its pilot project set up in the fall of 2020. Ultimately, 3,500 spaces will be converted, or 5% of the non-subsidized network, which has 68,000 permit spaces.

At the end of these first two phases of conversion, which have test value, the Ministry will carry out an evaluation which will provide it with the information necessary to plan the following stages of the process.can we read in the document of the major construction site.

This report will only be completed when all places have been converted as part of the pilot project, according to the Ministry of Family. However, the projects selected for the second phase will not be announced until next June.

The long delays prompted an owner of an unsubsidized child care center to conduct a survey to determine how many establishments, like hers, were considering closing their doors if the government did not do so sooner.

Of the 1300 members, Nolwenn Franchet received just over 212 responses. Of these, 205 owners said they were in favor of being converted to a subsidized environment, and three-quarters Early childhood CenterCPE.

Ms. Franchet, owner of the Villa Montessori, in Quebec, is all the more concerned that 139 daycares would be at risk of closing in the next 18 months, according to the answers obtained, which corresponds to 7585 places including 1200 in the nursery.

The initiator of this sounding herself made an appearance in the media in December, saying she was faced with a moral dilemma: close or drastically raise her prices.

She feels that she no longer has the choice of charging the parents $65 per day per child, otherwise she can no longer cover her expenses. But at this price, she considers that she encourages the two-tier system which she denounces.

These high rates and the lack of staff could, according to her, explain why some 19,000 of the 68,000 places in unsubsidized daycare centers were vacant as of December 31.

Unequal fight

Recognized non-subsidized daycares, licensed and applying the government’s educational program, are subject to the same requirements as subsidized daycares and CPEs. However, they believe that they do not have the same means.

With the shortage of labor and the significant increase in wages granted to educators in the public network, Ms. Franchet deplores a fight with unequal weapons to achieve quality standards.

To help the managers of non-subsidized daycares, Quebec granted the sum of $221 million to improve the tax credit given to parents. If this improvement was presented as a way to balance inequalities between families, it also allowed daycare centers to increase their rates.

The initiative was well received last fall, but was deemed insufficient by child care associations.

I think it is important to remember that we are the first government to take all these actions directly and to do all this work with the associationspleaded the minister’s office on the subject of the negotiations on the conversions and the improvement of the tax credit.