On October 21, 2021, Quebec Premier François Legault announced a $3 billion investment in child care to create 37,000 additional subsidized spaces by 2025. Titled “A place for every child”, the announcement is a significant expansion of the province’s child care system that aims to make affordable child care a right of every child until they enter school.
This significant investment is aimed at addressing the province’s child care wait lists by creating 37,000 additional subsidized spaces by March 31, 2025. An estimated 19,000 places are already in development with 17,000 more to come, as well as 1,000 spaces for Indigenous communities. The province will also be converting 3,500 non-subsidized spaces through an existing pilot project.
Importantly, the Legault government’s commitment is enshrined in An Act to amend the Educational Childcare Act to improve access to the educational childcare services network and complete its Development. If passed, the bill would:
* Provide special powers to the Minister of Families to fill gaps by assigning new child care spaces based on demand;
* Abolish limits on the number of subsidized spaces in child care;
* Allow the Minister to modify the accreditation of a home child care coordinating office to increase or decrease the number of spaces in the accreditation; and
* Remove a cap on the number of facilities child care centres and private centres can have.
The Quebec government will create a new web portal to centralize sign-ups and create more transparency for families. Parents will be able to easily access this web portal to determine where they rank on current child care waiting lists.
During a press conference with Minister of Families Mathieu Lacombe, Premier Legault committed that “all parents in Quebec who wish to send their child to daycare will have the opportunity to do so.”