The PQ urges Mathieu Lacombe to abandon private daycare

Shocked by disturbing facts concerning private daycares, the Parti Québécois once again urges the Minister of Families to abandon this business model in order to prioritize a 100% subsidized network.

• Read also: “It’s a scam”: another daycare would have cheated parents

• Read also: Thousands of dollars in daycare costs for nothing

“I don’t know what it’s going to take him, how many more stories of fraud, people linked to organized crime, lack of quality of services it’s going to take him to wake up and change course “, Plague MP Véronique Hivon.

Our Bureau of Investigation revealed on Monday that La Ronde des bisous, a non-subsidized private daycare center in Montreal, allegedly extracted large sums of money from parents through a tax scheme.

Despite complaints lodged with the Ministère de la Famille and the Office de la protection du consommateur in addition to an ongoing investigation at Revenu Québec, the establishment still has government authorization to accommodate children.

“How can you pretend that you can keep a daycare open when it is downright defrauding parents? That is absolutely amazing, ”denounces the spokesperson for the PQ in family matters.

For Liberal MP Jennifer Maccarone, this case is “simply unacceptable”.

“The ministry must act and quickly. We cannot tolerate this kind of practice. There must be sanctions and it is urgent, ”she pleads.

” Double speech ”

Véronique Hivon accuses Minister Mathieu Lacombre of holding “intolerable doublespeak”, claiming “publicly that he wants a 100% subsidized network”, without however putting forward “the actions to get there”.

“All of this is extremely disappointing,” she comments, while recalling that studies show a significant gap between the quality of services offered in Early Childhood Centers (CPE) and private daycares.

The Parti Québécois, the Liberal Party and Québec solidaire are all campaigning for more subsidized places in the network.

“I don’t understand how we can maintain a system that ensures that people make a profit [sur les services d’éducation à l’enfance]. It’s problematic ”supports the united deputy Christine Labrie, who says she expresses” a lot of empathy “for the parents who would have been cheated by La Ronde des bisous.

Three problematic daycare centers

It should be noted that over the past three months, our Bureau of Investigation has revealed problems concerning three daycare centers that had received the green light from Quebec to operate. Since then, two of them have been forced to close their doors.

Minister Lacombe pledged in an interview to step up daycare investigations and improve processing times.