(Orford) The Liberal Party of Quebec is proposing a series of commitments so that all Quebec parents have access to a subsidized place – at a single price – in a childcare service within five years. The liberal plan involves improving the salaries of educators, offering accelerated training and converting unsubsidized places.
“What we want is to ensure that children can have access to a childcare service, everywhere in Quebec, at the same level of quality and at the same price for all”, launched the chef Dominique Anglade. , on the sidelines of the presessional caucus of his formation, which is held from Tuesday to Thursday, in Orford, in the Eastern Townships.
This is the first meeting of the liberal troops present since the start of the pandemic. It also marks the start of the pre-election year in Quebec.
The Liberals have promised to table in the National Assembly “within the next few months” a bill detailing their aims. Essentially, the Liberal troops want access to child care to be recognized as a right, as is education under the Education Act.
The Act respecting educational childcare already recognizes that “every child has the right to receive, until the end of primary education, quality personalized educational childcare services”. But, “this right is exercised taking into account the organization and the resources” available, in particular.
« [La Loi] says you are entitled to child care, but […] provided that there are sufficient resources, decisions of the various committees and the prioritization given on the lists […] ”, Enumerated the liberal spokesperson in matters of family, Marc Tanguay. “These reservations, we believe, no longer have their raison d’être. A right is a right. ”
The Liberals are giving themselves five years to operate “a transition” and thus complete the network “so that the 51,000 children waiting for a place in daycare have a place” by prioritizing infants from 0 to 18 months. Their commitment amounts to annual investments of $ 1.2 billion on a recurring basis.
“At the end of all this, there will be a single system in which parents will have to pay a single price”, hammered Mme Anglade.
“A change of vision”
She admits that she proposes “a change of vision” compared to the era of her predecessor, Philippe Couillard, who had put forward a reform of the pricing of childcare services according to parents’ income, in 2014.
“The vision we are proposing is not one where there will be different systems in parallel. We want a system that is fair for everyone, ”she added.
In addition, the Liberals are committed to converting all the non-subsidized places in the network into subsidized places, increasing the salaries of educators and creating an accelerated early childhood training program similar to the one created for beneficiary attendants during the first wave of the pandemic.
The Minister of the Family, Mathieu Lacombe, recalled on Twitter that “the declaration of principle according to which each child has the right to a place is already in the law”. He accused the Liberals of having “brake[é] the development ”of childcare services“ for 15 years ”.
For her part, the chef Dominique Anglade maintained that she “never heard the CAQ government say that [l’accès au service de garde] had to be a right ”.