Can some explain Quebec $7.40 daycare system. Lot of questions.

[Suzie_Homemaker]

The NDP is promising $15 a day child care to parent over period of years nationally. I speak to my NDP representative early this morning for better understanding of what it mean and where funding come from.

He very unclear about much of it but going to find out.

He said "Mr McNeil has not committed to providing this yet. 6 province say they are interesting in looking at proposal and 4 not responded either way. Like Health Care, it will be administered at provincial level despite being National scheme. It will mirror Quebec system except it being $15 a day not Quebec rate which lower."

I know this for regulated daycare places.

I trying understand what restriction on regulated dayhome in Quebec. I think someone said not allowed to have notice period in contract. I think parent in Quebec say they not allowed choose carer and must go where space is told.

Is daycare fee in regulated care capped at set fee?
What happen when cost of supplies increase and need to up fees?
Who pay for difference in fees less parent contribution at set amount?
How long before government paid part of fees get given to provider? In advance? In arrears?
How many children can regulated provider have?
Do own count in those numbers? Until what age?

What happen in private (unregulated) day home in Quebec?
Is unregulated dayhome allowed?
Do parent pay all bill?
Do they get refund from government so all parent only pay $7.40 even in private dayhome?
Is number of children/ratio same?

Hoping someone here in Quebec can explain because I not understand and so hard to know what my MP mean when he say it will mirror Quebec system.

Thank you

[sandylynn]

No worries of ndp winning

[mickyc]

I hope your right sandylynn. The $15 a day daycare is the exact reason I am not voting NDP

[lplplp]

I hope your right sandylynn. The $15 a day daycare is the exact reason I am not voting NDP

Exactly my thoughts.

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Can someone please explain system in Quebec? It would be useful for me to have fact when meet MP later this week. I see what it will mean to taxpayer but need better understand what NDP say will be mirrored.

Is any forum person in Quebec?

[superfun]

I think kindertime is in Quebec.

[babydom]

Parents pay 7$ gov pays rest to daycare agency then agency pays the caregiver once a mth which I think is 28$. Fees don't raise to accommodate rising supply costs, etc. Only licences dayhomes can accept the 7$ a day parents they can not have some and some private where they pay a different fee set by caregiver. They are regulated and can have 6 kids under age 9 included their own under 5 I think. They can have up to 9 kids actually but if they go over 6 then they need to have an assistant. U can be private in Quebec and have 6 kids also but you can not accept the 7$ a day families. U need to set ur own rates and the family pays the rates directly to the provider

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Parents pay 7.40$ gov pays rest to caregiver once a mth which I think is 28$. Only licences dayhomes can accept the 7.40$ a day parents they can not have some and some private where they pay a different fee set by caregiver. They are regulated and can have 6 kids under age 9 included their own under 5 I think. U can be private in Quebec and have 6 kids also but you can not accept the 7.40$ a day families. U need to set ur own rates and the family pays the rates directly to the provider

So if regulated, can only accept $7.40 fee client and government pays rest.
Is the fee $28 from government plus $7.40 from parent - Or $28 minus $7.40 from parent?
What if business cost go up? Does provider have to absorb extra cost of business?

If unregulated, can parent claim back the fee they paid to provider less $7.40 a day?
What average day care fee for unregulated/private dayhome?

Is true that parent in regulated care have no choice to provider?
Is true that provider with regulated dayhome not allowed notice period from client?

Is charge to carer to be regulated?

[babydom]

I made some changes in my post.....The parent pays the 7$ to the caregiver. Then once a mth the daycare agency pays the rest to caregiver which is 28$. So they make like 35$ a day per child. The fees don't change to accommodate rising supply costs, etc. in private unregulated daycare the parent pays fee set out by provider they aren't not allowed to get difference back so they only pay 7$ a day. Private is anywhere from 25-35$ a day. I didn't hear or know about not choosing a daycare or no notice given.

[babydom]

I've also heard ratios are actually no more then 4 kids under age 12 including your own. So not sure which one it is. Because I'm so close to the border I've read up on their laws and some I read one thing some I read other. Or I ask around and this is what I am told :) sorry I'm not much help. U are in Quebec? Or you just want to know?

[kindertime]

Okay, the kids are about the get up... this is going to take awhile. I will get back to you. :) You may regret it, I can go on and on and on...

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Thankyou. It early evening here but I would like to really understand properly what it mean and how it work.

[kindertime]

Warning: This is a getting to be like a novel

Part One:


Oh where to begin? I would like to state for the record that I am not advocating this system. I'm not saying it is a good system, just that this is how it works (and doesn't in some cases.)

In 2004 when I was looking to start my daycare, I chose the subsidized system. I had the option to be private. So this was my process. I called the agency and started the process for "recognition." That is what licensing is called in Quebec. I had interviews and they came to my home to see it, there was paperwork and they invited me to take the courses they were offering for new home daycares. The law required (it's changed now) that home daycare providers who did not hold a diploma in ECE must take 45 hours in courses covering 4 topics. Those topics are, the Educational Program, the Role of the Educator, Health, Safety, Nutrition and Child Development. These courses were to be finished before the 2nd anniversary of the "Recognition date." The change I mentioned is last year they made it mandatory to take the 45 hours before you can be recognized.

I chose to be recognized for 6 children. If I had wanted more, (up to 9) I would have to be recognized and have an assistant. Any person can legally have 6 or fewer children. These numbers include all children under the age of nine present on the property. Children over 9yo, don't count at all. However, anyone living in the home over the age of 14, must be interviewed before recognition and every 3 years when the recognition is renewed.

The agency I was dealing with had 2 purposes. First, they have 2 "installations," and second, they recognized several home daycares in the area. The installations are childcare centers. Childcare centers in Quebec are not-for-profit so they have a board of directors. (Not to be confused with daycare centers, which are the for-profit centers.)

In 2006, there were over 800 agencies across the province, and it was a bit crazy so the system changed somewhat. They went with a Coordinating Office system. There are now only 165 COs in the province. The difference is that each CO is responsible for recognizing all of the HCPs in it's territory. The territories are the already established county and municipal boundaries. In my area (pop. approx 5000) there used to be 2 agencies. Now, there is one CO and if you open a subsidized daycare anywhere in that area, you go through them.

When my application was complete, it was sent to the board of directors and they approved. That was my recognition date. Being recognized means that all of the parents who use my daycare only pay the "reduced contribution." (Currently at $7.30/day) I cannot charge more than that to any parent who is eligible for the reduced contribution, ie all Quebec residents. But, if I had a parent come over from Ontario, I could charge whatever I wanted.

I don't imagine it is different in the rest of the country, but I will mention that even though I am licensed, I am still considered self-employed by the government and for tax purposes. The gov't has said that they will never want us to be "employees." This allows me to do many things the way I want to, to run my business. I choose my clients. No one can tell me which child I can and cannot take. And of course, it means parents are free to choose me or not also.

To Be Continued...

[kindertime]

Part Two:


I set up my own payment schedule and terms of payment. The law says; "The contribution is to be paid monthly or at fixed intervals of less than 1 month, in approximately equal instalments." I chose to be paid by the parents every second week on Friday for the upcoming 2 week period. So they pay me in advance. The subsidy is paid after. I submit an attendance sheet and a claim sheet to the office every 2 weeks and we get paid every second week on a Thursday. So, for example, I will get paid the subsidy on Oct 8th for Sept 14th through 25th. And the parents paid me for those 2 weeks on Sept. 11th. The CO is in charge of distributing the subsidy (by bank deposit) to all the HCPs it recognizes. HCPs are responsible for collecting money from their parent clients.

I am not sure exactly how it works between the CO and the gov't but they will have an idea approximately how much each pay out will be based on the number of spaces they have distributed and by our contracts with parents. So my CO has about 200 spaces divided up between 25 or so HCPs. I personally ran all last year with one space open (so I only had 5 kids) because I wanted to. They wanted me to fill that space but currently, there isn't any way for them to force me to fill it. I also know that the amount the CO receives from the gov't isn't just the amount to pay us. They have staff and expenses to pay too. So I think, if lots of people went like me and didn't fill all their spaces, then the CO would receive less money too.

At the time I was recognized, the parents paid me $7/ day. The subsidy amount was about $17.50. So for each day, I was paid a total of $24.50 per child. I didn't have any infants at the time but the extra per day for under 18m was about $9. In my first three years, the gov't was in the habit of increasing the subsidy by about 50 cents per year. Then they stopped at $19. Basically, there was a court ruling allowing us to be unionized and so the government stopped increasing the subsidy amount in anticipation of collective bargaining.

Currently, because we are unionized, and there have now been 2 collective agreements, we have an increase to the subsidy and guaranteed increases yearly. Today, the amount is $27.85/child/day. Infants (under 18mths) are $10.41/day extra. There are a couple of other numbers for special needs children and school aged, etc, but I don't know them off the top of my head.

I should also note here that recognition for one person (like me) can be for up to 6 children under 9yo and a maximum of 2 of them can be under 18mths. If recognition for one person with an assistant is for up to 9 children, a maximum of 4 of them can be under 18mths. Edited: Parents of infants pay the same as for older children.

The $7.30 that parents pay entitles them to; 1. all of the educational materials required to meet the educational program standards; 2. a maximum of 10 hours of care per day; 3. and 1 meal and 2 snacks in those 10 hours.

Subsidized HCPs have rules to follow with regards to payments from parents. Except for 4 special situations, I am not allowed to charge more than $7.30/day. I can charge extra for; 1. more than 10 hours of care per day, 2. extra personal care items, like sunscreen, toothbrushes, diaper wipes, etc. (if parents provide them, then they can't be charged; ) 3. special outings/field trips; 4; an extra meal. This last one is tricky for a lot of people.

I set my own lunch and snack times. If the parent doesn't bring their child in time for snack, or picks up before it's served, then they don't get it. But I cannot charge extra for a "fancy meal" or anything like that. The extra meal could be breakfast and the HCP is free to charge whatever she wants for that, but, and this is what trips some people up. Under no circumstances is an HCP allowed to require that the parent pays the extra amount. If they don't pay, they don't get the extra meal, of course, but what sometimes happens is the HCP gets to liking charging the extra amount and when a parent asks, "how much do you charge?" The HCP will say "$8." That's illegal.

I set my own hours, 6:30 - 4:30. A full day is considered any length of time over 4.5 hours, up to 10 hours. Although I don't have to be open for 10 hours, it is generally assumed that you should be and I haven't really wanted to change.

I set all of my own policies, schedule and menu too. In many ways, I can run my business like anyone else in the country. There are a few restrictions, however.

1. I cannot receive any money from any parent before their child sets foot in my house for their first day. So there are no deposits or holding fees here. This is from the Consumer Protection Act, not specifically daycare related. If the parent has made a contract to start Sept 1st, but the child is sick on the 1st and the next 3 days, they do not pay for those 4 days. They come on the 5th and start paying on that day but, then, they pay in the manner I have determined in my contract. So if they come on day 1 but are sick for the next 10 days, they will still pay for those 10 sick days. This is true of the subsidy too. Until the child actually sets foot in my house, nothing, no matter the contract. But, if on day one, the child comes for only 30 minutes, that's considered a start.

2. I must close on 8 stat days and an additional 17 days in the year. This comes from the collective agreement. I am allowed to charge parents when I am closed. I am also allowed to close for more than those 25 days, and charge for them. And I am also allowed to charge for unexpected closings if it is written in the contract. I have always taken holidays before it was required, but this is a problem for a lot of HCPs because they never did close. They would hire someone to come in if they wanted to take time off. They can't do that anymore. It also leaves us vulnerable to the centers. They don't have to close that much so for parents who like to send their kids every single day of the year, the centers are better.

3. Also from the Consumer Protection Act, if a parent cancels the contract, they are not required to give any notice. They have to do it in writing, but beyond that, no notice. If the parent does cancel with or without notice, I am allowed to charge; either $50; or 10% of what's remaining in the contract, whichever is less. So at $7.30/day, if there are 100 days remaining in the contract, that's $730, and 10% is $73, so the max I could charge is $50. It is such a small amount, if they don't want to pay, how am I going to make them? So I don't even bother.

4. It is such a can of worms, and I have mixed feelings about it overall, but we are now unionized. In terms of money, we do get a higher subsidy amount, and we are paid subsidy for those 25 days of closure, but, we pay dues and we have a health/life insurance plan we have to pay into. It is expensive. Then, on the flip side, we are entitled to social protections like maternity leave and workman's compensation benefits (CSST) in case of injury. We weren't before unionization. Also, in Quebec, there is a plan for pregnant childcare workers, called preventative leave. Is it available in other parts of the country? So a woman who works with children finds out she's pregnant, she can take paid leave from that day on until the end of her normal EI - 12 month mat leave. It used to only be available for daycare center workers because it is paid through CSST but now we can get it too. So that's good.

To be continued...

[Van]

Make sure we all vote as it really will count !!! , I am not voting NDP as I don't like the $15 a day daycare. I keep listening to all of them and will make up my mind closer to the day.
it is true, every vote counts!

[babydom]

See i wasnt that much off...haha :p

[Suzie_Homemaker]

This very interesting and very frightening too.

I lucky than most but lot carer here who not charge deposit, find out on day child meant start that child not coming. Some parent use this non-deposit as way to hold place at several dayhome and then go where prefer with no informing all other they not coming. With no financial investment in reserved place, it no consequence to them if 10 provider believe place filled when not. Often the provider end up calling on day expecting child to start to see where are, and if parent pick up phone, they told they decided go somewhere else.

Our register provider mandated provide meals and 2 snack for child in all day care but our unregistered not. Some unregistered do, some don't. If fee set at what government will pay and parent part, this dictate total fee for day and food expensive here. Loaf bread is about $3.29. 4 ltr milk about $6 and milk never on sale. Potato very cheap as grown on island.


Then, on the flip side, we are entitled to social protections like maternity leave and workman's compensation benefits (CSST) in case of injury. We weren't before unionization. Also, in Quebec, there is a plan for pregnant childcare workers, called preventative leave. Is it available in other parts of the country?

I older. My own children now 20-29 year old. So not up to date with all mat leaves etc. But we can opt into EI. For self-employed person, it offer more cover if younger than me. Main benefit is mat leave but it paid at 55% of profit for year so after deductions, we know in this business, that might be half of total fees before expenses and other deductions. It also cover if minor child is seriously ill but I think it more for terminal ill child so only very serious situation. Once children 18 this not available. Lot provider opt in thinking they having future child but mat leave normally end up being they better off just setting money aside as they not able to pay bills with it anyway. Once opt in EI, cannot opt out for duration of self-employed time.

So nothing like this you explained.

This time year is terrible for filling place. September mean high volume vacancies so parent push for best deal, low price, lack of paid leave. September vacancies often sit empty until Jan. This why so many need month notice and I not imagine how most pay bill if no notice period.

It common here when people start (registered and unregistered) that they not have paid leave. Lot not charge stats. It take many year to build rep and begin adding paid pays. It uncommon when I first add 10 paid day but that is all I close all year. For provider who close over Christmas or 2 week in Summer and have 4 week closed, they struggle find client even if time off unpaid because parent not have so much leave and left looking for other carer. Some people here only get 2 paid wk year so even if 2 parent family, they barely cover 4 week closing between both and that leave zero annual leave for them together as family.

Lot provider close on stat day with no pay but that slowly changing now too.

[kindertime]

Part Three:


Taxes;

My income is the $7 from parents and all of the subsidy amounts. Even though the parents give me $7.30/day, the gov't claws back the $.30 with every subsidy pay so it isn't income to me. As far as what I can claim, its the same as everyone else. Business use of home, and daycare expenses for a business. The Quebec tax form calculates some of the business use of home things differently, so I'm able to claim a smaller percentage, but the concept is the same. And it is important to note that we have 2 separate tax forms to complete. One goes to the the CRA with possible tax due to them, and one goes to Revenue Quebec with tax due to them, as well as other things like the QPP (Que. version of CPP,) health care fees, and the parental insurance plan I mentioned before (preventative leave.)

For parents, it is actually changing this year. First I'll explain how it used to be.

The universal daycare plan is available to parent users of childcare centres (CPEs,) subsidized daycare centers (private, for-profit centers,) and subsidized home childcare providers (HCPs.) Because the gov't is paying 80% of the cost of their daycare, they cannot claim childcare expenses on their Quebec taxes. The parent's income was not considered, it truly was universal. If the parent pays an additional amount to their daycare for breakfast or sunscreen, they cannot claim it on the Que taxes. They can claim an additional amount paid for more than 10 hours of care. This includes a late pick-up fee, but does not include late payment fees. In that case, the daycare provides a Releve 24 tax receipt with that extra amount.

As far as I know, parents are allowed to claim all of their daycare expenses on their Fed taxes. So I provide my own tax receipt, for all the money parent's have paid me. I use the same booklet everyone else can use for this information from the CRA.

This system is changing this year. It is still universally available, however, the parent's income is now being considered. Parent's still pay me $7.30/day but when they file their taxes in 2016 for the 2015 year, they will be asked to pay additional amounts if their family/household income is more than $50,000. The coordinating offices have been given the task of collecting all of the SINs from all of the parent users so that they can write up a new tax form (Releve 30) that states the number of days they used from April 22, 2015 until Dec. 31, 2015. So if they used 145 days and they owe an additional amount of $2/day, they will have to pay with their taxes $290. The extra amount is based on their income and goes up to an additional amount of $12.70/day.

Changes;

This is part of a larger picture. The universal plan is very popular but, obviously very expensive and in the last few years, there seems to be a push within the gov't to phase it out, without being too obvious.

There are 15,000 recognized home daycares in the province. That is about 93,000 children under the age of 5. Additionally, there are about 70,000 children in CPEs and maybe 50,000 in subsidized daycares. Pretty much all of the home daycares in this system are unionized (there are 3 different unions) and a handful of center workers are also uninized. As expensive as we are, the CPEs for exmaple, are more so. The gov't pays the subsidy at a higher rate per child to them than they do to us. For example, I receive $37.26/day for an infant. A CPE receives over $60/day.

10 years ago, there were very few (if any) recognized non-subsidized childcare spaces. These are spaces that are licensed and theoretically inspected but in set private residences or centers. They are for-profit but carry a "stamp of approval" from the gov't. 5 years ago, 2% of the recognized spaces were unsubsidized. Today, 18% of them are. And ever increasing.

Parents are being lured to the private spaces because of a new tax credit available to them. It was introduced 3 or 4 years ago and in a lot of cases, parents who pay a full fee daycare can actually end up paying less than they would in the subsidized system. They apply online and when approved by Revenu Que, they can make the claim for a refund monthly. Using their web tool to calculate, I figure for a family making $50,000/year, paying $35/day for daycare would end up getting close to $30/day back.

My prediction is that in 5 years, the system will be so badly undermined that it won't continue. And we will go back to a private system like the rest of the country. And at that time, the gov't will be able to take away the tax credit and get out of the daycare business altogether.

Lastly, I would like to point out, that unlike what I read on this forum about serious incidents occuring way more frequently in the licenced centers vs. the private home daycares in Ontario, it is the opposite in Quebec. By far, the most complaints and incidents happen in the private, for profit daycares (centers and home daycares) vs. the subsidized places.

To be continued... (Part Four; how it works to be a private home daycare)

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Thank you for taking this time to explain. It make sense but will take a few reading for me fully absorb and then question odd things. This best explanation of system I seen ever, so I appreciate you take time to do this.

[kindertime]

But we can opt into EI. For self-employed person,

This is a Fed. program and so is available to us as well. I chose not to opt in- not going to need a mat leave, myself, either. I have also opted to not pay into the CSST, (that's workman's comp.) It is normally reserved for employers to pay into on behalf of their employees, but because we are in a unique work situation, it is now available for us to pay into for ourself. But, being Que. they have to make it difficult so they won't talk to us on the phone in English, only French and I'm not that good in French so it's a lost cause for me and many other Anglophones. Oh, no, wait, I don't have time to get into that again!!!

[kindertime]

What happen in private (unregulated) day home in Quebec?
Is unregulated dayhome allowed?
Do parent pay all bill?
Do they get refund from government so all parent only pay $7.40 even in private dayhome?
Is number of children/ratio same?


Part Four:

I am not aware of any regulation covering private home daycares. I believe centers, be they private or public, have to follow regulations. If anyone wants to open a private home daycare in Quebec, they can. They can have up to 6 children not including their own. I have not been able to find out if there is a restriction on the number of infants.

Theoretically, these private home daycares have to follow the other laws of the province, they just don't have to follow the childcare laws. So for example, the Consumer Protection Act, I mentioned before, would still apply to them. However, because there is no oversight, and if the parents don't know the terms of their contracts may be illegal, the private home daycare could get away with a lot.

As far as what they can charge, it is like the rest of the country - you can charge whatever the market will bear. If they require parents to provide all food, well, so be it. If they want to increase their fees on a moments notice, fair enough if they can still keep their clients.

I have already explained the tax implecations of going with private daycare, and that for some famillies, it can be more advantageous. There was a story on the news a couple of months back about Revenu Quebec raiding a bunch of houses for illegal claiming of daycare fees. They didn't go into details but what I'm sure was happening was that they were either not providing daycare at all but still giving out receipts to people; or, and this is more likely, giving out receipts for amounts way higher than they were charging. So if the daycare charged $20 dollars, the parent claimed they were paying $35 dollars and got $30 back in tax credits, they would split the difference with the daycare provider. At least that's my guess.

The real situation here is kind of like what I'm hearing about from Cfred and others in Ontario. The people making decisions about how to organize a daycare system, don't actually believe daycare is a good thing. Like as if we should all go back to the 'perfect" society of the 50's where happy housewives stayed home and the kids all played on the streets. "How was your day, dear?"

My own dad, who is so in favour of the daycare system here that he thinks it should actually be free and not $7/day, is totally in support of the Ontario gov't and their handling of daycare. Because they are "just looking out for the children." I can only shake my head, 'cuz he won't listen to me anyway.

If anyone is interested, I can go into an explanation of how the union fits (or doesn't) into this picture. Otherwise, I think I've covered the basics for now. For anyone who has read my whole diatribe, thanks, and now go have a glass of wine or something, sheesh!:blink:

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Thank you so much. I think I have to read few times to sink in what it mean vs understand on surface level but very thankful you explain so much. Now to let sink in.

[33 Daiseys]

kindertime - thank you for all of you time in explaining how i works in Quebec. I just wanted to say on a personal level, that you should go into writing. You are very very good at story telling.:thumbsup:

[kindertime]

I would like to add from Suzie's OP, the whole question of the NDP plan, I have no idea what they think they are going to do. The Quebec system exists here because of very specific public attitudes and interests. It will NOT work anywhere else. There are really great social programs in European countries but when you consider their populations and their geographical sizes, you would have to see that applying the same models here, in the second largest country in the world, isn't going to work. Medicare, for example, is a country wide/ provincially managed system but its different because most people will need medical help in their lives sometime and most people agree that treating illnesses and injuries is a good thing. The attitudes about childcare, are not like that.

The NDP is supposedly going to introduce their full election platform today, so maybe they will be specific about this $15/day idea.

Advance polls open today... everybody... GO VOTE!

[Suzie_Homemaker]

So private dayhome really is unregulated? In lot provinces, inc mind, private has fewer rule follow but still many rule apply. In Quebec, private dayhome no limit on children, no regs at all, no min requirement and parent actually better off with refund of cost of care? And provider better off because no cap on fees other than local market?

But for you, limit on spaces approved for, limit on what parent pay, government portion capped and total fees restricted.

How you financially manage on $7.40 from parent and $28 from government and no more than 6 ? With expenses for food and other standard supplies, earning about $27 per child before taxes.

Unless I misunderstand, it seem unregulated is better for provider and parent if parent find food carer?

Do you know if lot children in unregulated private dayhome?

I very surprize that unregulated really does mean unregulated. I not sure many people understood this before.

[kindertime]

Yes. Unregulated. I assume they follow rules like the Criminal Code and tax laws, etc. but there are no childcare rules for them to follow. That is what I meant when I said the gov't is undermining the system. If someone wants to have more than 6 of other people's children come in, they can. And there is no restriction that includes the provider's own children. Personally, I don't agree that this is better for parents. It might look better from a financial point of view, but what about those kids? Yikes!

Someone told me once that the maximum of 9 children under the age of 9yo, is actually from the fire code, and applies to all houses all the time. I don't know if that is true through. The Fire Code is part of the national Building Code and it isn't available online. I don't feel like paying $500 to read it.

If you are interested, I will give you links to the law and regulations we have to follow.

The Educational Childcare Act.
http://www2.publicationsduq uebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type= 2&file=/S_4_1_1/S4_1_1_A.html

The Educational Childcare Regulation (specific details about how to follow the rules in the Act.)
http://www2.publicationsduq uebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type= 3&file=/S_4_1_1/S4_1_1R2_A.HTM

The Reduced Contribution Regulation (deals specifically with the $7.30 parents pay and the administration of the plan.)
http://www2.publicationsduq uebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type= 3&file=/S_4_1_1/S4_1_1R1_A.HTM

[kindertime]

How you financially manage on $7.40 from parent and $28 from government and no more than 6 ? With expenses for food and other standard supplies, earning about $27 per child before taxes.

??:confused: Where I am, it is the poorest region in Quebec, so housing costs are lower. My whole mortgage probably cost less than a garden shed in Toronto. But I have no idea how the ladies in the cities do it. In 2005, the subsidy was $17.50. And this is one of the main reasons we unionized. Your question is valid, and it is something we all struggle with every day. I haven't even started talking about the paperwork and the administration of the program and our relationships with the COs.

Oh and it's actually, $7.30 from parents and $27.85 from subsidy. And my take home income is way less than $27. :(

[kindertime]

Do you know if lot children in unregulated private dayhome?

I get all my numbers directly from the Minister of Families (the MFA) that runs the daycare system. They publish their numbers and also the inspection reports from the CPEs, the Daycares and fines imposed, etc. I love the internet. I also have lots of free time. :)

Edit: I'm sorry, Suzie, I actually misunderstood your question. I do not have numbers for children in unregulated home daycares. I was thinking about the regulated, unsubsidized spaces. Those are reported. I am not certain if there could be numbers for private home daycare because there is absolutely no oversight of them.

I made reference in an earlier post about serious incidents and complaints about private daycares. These are reported to the MFA, (gov't) and I will try to find out if I can get actual numbers.

In my small town, in the 10years I have been open, there have been several private home daycares come and go. 6-12 months, is maybe the average. Recently, however, it seems like there are more. And they're advertising more aggressively. Taking advantage of the tax credits available and they are people with early childhood backgrounds. Serious people, looking to make a career out of it. Competition. I am lucky to have a full house at the moment.

[kindertime]

For some reason I was wrtting the subsidy amount as $25.85 the whole way through even though I should have known better. I have corrected it but wanted to be clear.

[kindertime]

Copied and pasted directly from the NDP platform realeased today;


"Creating and sustaining one million quality childcare spaces at no more than $15 a day.

We will begin immediately to make funding available and work with all provinces and territories to recognize programs already underway, while ensuring Canadian families get the affordable childcare they deserve. After 30 years of successive, hollow promises by the Liberals and Conservatives, the NDP will deliver affordable, high-quality, accessible childcare for Canadian families. In Quebec, this means helping the provincial government maintain and improve the existing low-cost, quality childcare program."

http://www.ndp.ca/platform/childcare-and-family-benefits?category=ch ildcare

[Van]

Thank you Kindertime for all the info on the Quebec system and also the NDP daycare info - I am NOT voting for NDP as I don't like the $15 a day daycare, we would be waiting for the money from the Gov and all that extra Paper work!!!!!!! , NO Thank YOU To NDP