Photo: Olivier Zuida Archives Le Devoir In total, subsidized and unsubsidized private daycares were the subject of 77.2% of complaints, although they make up just over 40% of the network.
Patrice Bergeron – The Canadian Press in Quebec
Published at 0:00 Updated at 5:41 p.m.
- Quebec
Three quarters of complaints regarding the health and safety of children in the childcare network target subsidized or unsubsidized private daycares, worries the Parti Québécois (PQ).< /p>
The CAQ government instead tried to be reassuring about these data on Wednesday.
Between April 1, 2023 and the 29 February 2024, more than a third of complaints, 36.5%, targeted unsubsidized private daycares, while these establishments constitute barely 20% of the early childhood network, according to data obtained by the Parti Québécois (PQ) and transmitted at The Canadian Press.
Likewise, 40.7% of complaints concerned subsidized private daycares, although they represent 21% of the supply.
So in total, subsidized private daycares and unsubsidized were the subject of 77.2% of complaints, while they form a little more than 40% of the network.
In comparison, the Centers of early childhood (CPE), which represent 35% of the network, generated 19.4% of the volume of plains.
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In figures, 2,387 complaints concerning children's health and safety issues were received at the complaints office of the Complaints and Inspections Directorate at the Ministry of Family.
This includes each subject of complaint as well as reports, and affects the health and safety of children as well as people in contact with a childcare service.
Catherine Pelletier, l The press secretary of the Minister of Families, assured in a message that “our children are safe” in the network and that “complaints are handled with all necessary diligence”.
Subsidized private daycares have the same ratio of qualified staff as CPEs, the same educational program, the same safety standards, it was specified.
< p>The PQ, which is calling for a 100% CPE network, criticizes the Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, for being “obviously in favor of the private sector”, to use the words of PQ MP Joël Arseneau.
Its leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon accused the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) of making the deliberate choice of offering lower quality services.
He recalled that However, the government had included in its law that it wanted to prioritize CPEs.
“If the data shows that CPEs are better for Quebec families, why continue- to promote the development of places in the private sector ?” asked the leader of the PQ to François Legault during the question period.
“What is important “is that there are places offered, that parents have access to these places and that quality services are provided, so we are not dogmatic,” argued M . Legault.
It is “diversity” that “gives the strength” of the educational childcare network, added spokesperson Catherine Pelletier.
She affirmed that it It is “false” to say that the private sector is favored.
In the House, the Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, also affirmed that two thirds places allocated as part of the Major Project for Families launched in 2021 are in CPE.
M. Arseneau instead argued that 5,800 of the private places converted into subsidized places were allocated to subsidized private daycares, and only 200 to CPEs.