MONTREAL – With the first day of the private subsidized daycare strike, hundreds of childcare centres have been closed, leaving Quebec families to find alternative care on Wednesday.
Members of the Quebec Private Daycares Association (AGPQ) are protesting proposed government cuts to their budgets.
Private subsidized daycares have been asked to cut $14.9 million from their budgets this year to help meet Quebec’s zero-deficit objective. Government figures show that each daycare pockets around $100,000 in profit annually and as a result, daycare centre budgets will be cut by $21,000.
As tensions continued to build, last week Quebec’s Family Minister Nicole Léger told the Association that each day of strike would cost them a minimum of $3,750 in fines.
“I will never tolerate that parents be taken hostage by their pressure tactics,” she said.
Sylvain Lévesque, President of the Quebec Private Daycares Association, said the issue is not as simple as it sounds. He noted that $21,000 is in fact a lot of money for operators that need to buy equipment and it helps to keep buildings running.
He proposed that as it costs taxpayers around $2.5 million to build a new $7-a-day public daycare, the government could save on building costs by creating more places in the private network and fewer in the public sector.
The response from Quebec’s opposition on the matter has been mixed.
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