Attempts to get the PQ government to budge on $14.9 million in cuts to daycare services have hit a wall.
Representatives from 200 private daycares spent two hours negotiating with Families Minister Nicole Léger Thursday but failed to make any headway.
The private daycares will bear the brunt of the cuts, plus another $800,000 in fines laid on them as punishment for a strike it held on May 22.
Daycare leader Sylvain Lévesque, speaking for the Association of private daycares of Quebec (AGPQ) said he lacked words to express his frustration.
He then slammed Pauline Marois for cutting budgets on the backs of small business and said that he had never participated in such a “stupid” negotiation.
The AGPQ proposed that the government advance pay equity grants to 2016 from 2017.
But Leger turned the offer down cold.
The government is cutting $28,000 from the annual budget of an average daycare with 80 spots, according to the AGPQ, which said that services will suffer.
Lévesque said that daycares will continue protesting but only one weekends, as they do not want to face any more fines.
-With a file from The Canadian Press
