Despite the context of a severe labor shortage, the Ministry of Family refused the creation of an 80-place early childhood center in the northern industrial zone of Trois-Rivières, in Mauricie.
The decision sowed much disappointment and questioning. The ministry mainly justified its refusal by the fact that this CPE project was located outside the perimeter of establishment determined for Trois-Rivières.
The Bellemare group had promoted it, not only for its internal needs, but also for those of all the SMEs active in this sector.
“It’s really an administrative reason because we are not quite in the right region. We are in the north while the available places are in the Cap-de-la-Madeleine and Trois-Rivières Ouest sectors, ”explained in a tone of disappointment Alexandra Ducharme, director of operations at Groupe Bellemare.
AAR, which maintains aircraft nearby in the Trois-Rivières airport area, counted on this service to facilitate its recruitment and retain its existing staff.
“Access to daycare services is one of the benefits that is in high demand by our employees,” said Stéphane Rochette, director of AAR Corporation.
The mayor of Trois-Rivières is sorry for this decision, especially since the City had launched a campaign for the creation of new places in February.
“It’s difficult to understand the reasons why we can refuse such a project when we are seeing how we can be agile, how we can be creative in setting up new daycare spaces,” pleaded the Mayor Jean Lamarche.
Political pressure will now be brought to bear for the refusal to be reconsidered.
Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com