QUEBEC—Quebec’s government has reached a deal, in principle, with one of the province's private daycare groups that will not alter the Parti Quebecois' planned near $15 million in budget cuts.
The Rassemblement des garderies privees du Quebec (RGPG) counts 149 of the 655 private daycares in the province. Despite Tuesday's announcement, the PQ has not reached a deal with the 210-member Quebec association of private daycares (QAPD) or the 296 non-affiliated ones.
Family Minister Nicole Leger did not reveal details of the deal, which falls within her insistence on $14.9M in cuts across all the 650 private daycare. Leger said the government would meet with the RGPG on Friday.
"We're not budging from the $14.9 million, it's an important number for us this year," Family Minister Nicole Leger said on Tuesday.
On Monday, the QAPD asked parents to show oppose budget cuts by keeping their kids at home on Wednesday, when they plan to protest in front of the national assembly.
The provincial government is planning to create hundreds of new daycares in order to provide 15,000 more subsidized spaces. Owners of private daycares are not allowed to apply to transform their company into a publicly-funded institution, however.
QAPD president Sylvain Levesque likened premier Pauline Marois to “a dictator” imposing its will like “a terrorist regime.” Levesque says Marois is taking parents “hostage” to pursue an ideological battle against private daycare.
