Liberal austerity

Daycares hammered by more funding cuts

Coping with coming cuts by the province is causing uncertainty and anxiety at Aylmer’s CPE Aux Petits Lurons daycare. “We no longer have room to manoeuvre,” said Eric Maltais, Director General of the CPE.

On February 1, CPE employees and children formed a human chain around the daycare centre to protest government cutbacks. “We are mobilizing to show our alarm with the cuts,” continued Maltais. The cuts across the CPE network, effective April 1, are projected to be $120 million.

This is not the first time CPEs have faced major cuts. The union representing CPE workers states that since 2006 more than $440 million has been pulled from the CPE network.

Promoting private daycares

“Liberal policies are undermining the educational mission of CPEs, established in the 1990s and the envy of the world for the network’s exceptional quality and its positive impact on child development. Clearly, the government wants to transform the educational childcare centres into simple babysitting services, while promoting greater use of private profit-making centres,” said Christian Meilleur, FSSS-CSN vice-president for the Outaouais.

Mr. Maltais explained that, unlike private daycares, the CPE network has unionized workers with training requirements, and is stringently regulated by the Ministry of Families. “CPEs are not private or subsidized daycares, they are managed by parents. They are different worlds.

 

I have a million rules to follow,” noted Maltais.

“We have already cut many staff hours, changed the schedules and break times; we’ve done so much to save money. If these new cuts come, I don’t know what I will do and neither do the parents.”  CPEs are administered by parents.

Currently the CPE Aux Petits Lurons has 40 employees for 138 children. Because of earlier cuts, some employees have already lost their full-time status.

“Everything has been modified. For example, here we have two facilities (Front Street and Eardley Road) and we were charged $8 per delivery by the produce company. Now the company delivers the produce to one building and an employee walks the produce over to the other. This is fine in summer, but during winter I need to see my employee does not hurt himself or else we’ll end up dealing with the CSST and that will cost more than $8,” Maltais told the Bulletin.

During Premier Couillard’s cabinet shuffle at the end of January, a new minister for the Ministry of Families was appointed, Sébastien Proulx. Mr. Maltais hopes the new minister can show “some openness”. However, before joining the Liberals, Mr. Proulx was a member of the right-leaning ADQ party.