Création et le développement facilité de près de 5 800 places subventionnées en services de garde éducatifs à l’enfance
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Government announcement
6 March 2018

Minister Luc Fortin announces the creation and facilitated development of nearly 5,800 subsidized spots in educational childcare services

Création et le développement facilité de près de 5 800 places subventionnées en services de garde éducatifs à l’enfance

To better meet Quebec families’ needs

Montréal, March 6, 2018. – To better meet the needs of Quebec families and consolidate the network of educational childcare services, Luc Fortin, Minister of Families, announced the creation and facilitated development of nearly 5,800 subsidized spots all over Quebec. This announcement follows a review of the available childcare services that helped to reveal parents’ childcare needs.

2,000 new subsidized spots

In light of this review’s results, 2,000 new subsidized spots were granted at early childhood centres and subsidized daycares as part of a targeted call for projects. All spots created will meet the needs of parents in each area. These spots will be divided as follows:

  • 1,400 in territories that lack spots
  • 200 in disadvantaged areas
  • 400 in response to the advisory committees’ recommendations on the distribution of spots

This call for projects targets subsidized early childhood centres and daycares, which will have until June 6, 2018, to submit their projects. These will be analyzed by the advisory committees on the availability of educational childcare services based on quality, relevance and feasibility. Afterwards, recommendations will be made to the Minister.

Facilitated development for nearly a hundred projects

Moreover, 92 projects that are slated for development between now and 2020–2021 will be helped along so that nearly 3,800 new spots can be created more quickly. To accomplish this, three measures are proposed:

  • Reduce early childcare centres’ contributions to financing infrastructure from 50% to 25% or even completely exempt them under certain conditions.
  • Complete projects before the projected deadline.
  • Allow opportunities to change during the development of projects.

Quote:

Today, we are taking concrete steps to create each spot in the right place thanks to a review of childcare services that enabled us to know precisely what parents need regarding childcare. By acting early and giving families more time, our government has shown once again that it is listening to the needs of families all over Quebec.

– Luc Fortin, Minister of Families

Key facts

  • On December 31, 2017, nearly 300,000 regulated spots were offered by educational childcare services, nearly 233,000 of which were subsidized.
  • The review of childcare services was based on the expertise and knowledge acquired by the advisory committees. These committees have been responsible since 2010 for advising the minister on the management of the availability of subsidized childcare services.
  • The Ministry will publish geographic maps on its website showing the availability of educational childcare services for each advisory committee’s territory, illustrating the coverage of the demand for regulated childcare spots in 2017 and 2021.
  • These maps are based on statistical data so that the regional and local contexts can be processed easily. These maps will be updated twice a year, in February and June, to make the development of educational childcare services in Quebec easier and more coherent. 

Targeted call for projects

  • The call for projects targets 26 territories in 12 regions of Quebec: Bas-Saint-Laurent, Capitale-Nationale, Mauricie, Estrie, Montréal, Outaouais, Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Chaudière-Appalaches, Lanaudière, Laurentides, Montérégie and Centre-du-Québec.
  • New spots will be allocated in subsidized early childhood centre projects and daycares, divided up by 85% and 15% respectively.
  • All details surrounding the targeted call for projects will be available on the Ministry’s website.

Projects made easier

  • Modifications were made to the administrative rules of the Programme de financement des infrastructures et autres subventions liées à des projets d’immobilisation (PFI) and were made available through the Ministry’s website. These will also be applied to early childcare centre projects chosen from the targeted call for projects.
  • Everything is subject to the decision of the targeted childcare project administrators.

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