QUEBEC CITY - A private daycare owners group has strongly rejected a tentative deal with the PQ government over $15 million in cutbacks.
Fifty-five of 86 private, subsidized daycare owners, members of the Rassemblement des garderies privées du Québec (RGPQ), voted Friday to reject the deal – a margin of 64 per cent. The deal had been agreed to earlier this week by the group’s executive and Families Minister Nicole Léger. The group has a total of 149 members.
The rejection means all of Quebec’s 660 private daycares who receive government subsidies to fund $7-a-day daycare spots are now at odds with the government over how to implement the government’s $15 million in cuts this year.
On Thursday members of the largest private daycare group, the Association des garderies privées du Québec (AGPQ), met with Léger and walked out. They told CTV the minister had no intention of compromising.
But Léger said the AGPQ asked her for an additional subsidy three years down the road. Léger said this proved the group’s bad faith. The minister has worked out a deal with the all-public, unionized Centres de la Petite Enfance, which account for 80 per cent of all daycare spots in the province. They have agreed to $31 million in cutbacks.
The private daycares have said if the cuts are forced on them they will have to cut staff and reduce the ratio of daycare workers to children. The minister says the private daycares can easily make the cuts without affecting service because they have an average after-tax profit of $100,000 a year.
