Photo: Valérian Mazataud Archives Le Devoir This amendment to Bill C-35 aims to “ensure that official language minority communities have access to preschool education and child care, regardless of their place of residence,” according to the Minister of the Family and bearer of the legislative text, Jenna Sudds.
The amendment to Bill C-35, which aims to guarantee long-term funding for French-speaking daycares, has been accepted by Ottawa, the Minister of Families and sponsor of the legislative text announced on Wednesday , Jenna Sudds.
This amendment aims to “ensure that official language minority communities have access to preschool education and child care, regardless of where they reside,” he said. she declared.
It is now up to the opposition parties to accept or not the amendment, already adopted by the Senate, so that the bill can receive royal assent. Two weeks ago, the president of the Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities (FCFA) of Canada, Liane Roy, estimated that the opposition parties had had a “fairly favorable reception”.
What rather worried the FCFA and the Commission nationale des parents francophones (CNPF) was the “total silence” from Ottawa, which had “given no indication of its intention to support or not this amendment”. The two organizations then mobilized French-speaking parents, asking them to write to their deputies to encourage them to vote in favor of this modification.
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In March 2022, the Ontario and federal governments implemented a five-year plan to reduce the cost of child care to an average of $10 per day. Bill C-35 would ratify these agreements.
Last December, the Senate adopted a single amendment, which aims to ensure that section 8 commits the Government of Canada “to maintaining long-term funding” for child care services intended for “communities official language in a minority situation” in the same way as it mentions centers “intended for indigenous peoples”.
The director general of the National Commission for Francophone Parents, Jean-Luc Racine, estimated, based on the opinions of three jurists who testified in the Senate, that without this clarification, it would have been “possible to read in the draft law a deliberate intention not to include official language minority communities.” “The only thing that is permanent and lasting is the laws,” he said.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.