Filled with adorable toddlers and cheery primary colours, daycare centres are an unlikely setting for a scandal. But there is no longer much doubt that a real scandal is brewing in Quebec's daycare system. This needs urgent attention.
At first this appeared to be strictly a matter of illegal overcharging. Subsidized daycares are allowed to charge only the well-known $7 a day per space. Operators are not supposed to charge extra fees unless the money is for a special outing or special needs.
This past week, however, La Presse reported that Le Petit Pommier, a daycare centre in Terrebonne, evicted two children after their parents refused to routinely pay an additional $8 a day per child.
So far, so bad: A taxpayer-subsidized operation deliberately flouted the law and then coldly evicted two children when their parents stopped paying the premium.
If the $8 in extra costs had been just the infantile equivalent of Quebec's university-tuition battle - a sign that it is not possible to offer adequate services at discount prices - then the solution would have been obvious, if not politically easy: Somebody, the user or the government, would have to pay more, and the illegal fees would stop.
(The difference between what parents pay for daycare and the actual cost is made up by taxpayers. The system, though of course popular with those who have a space, is painfully unfair: Who gets a spot is a matter of luck, if not good connections. There have never been enough places to meet demand.)
Unfortunately for the Charest government, this business hasn't stopped at top-up fees. The National Assembly rang this week with accusations over favouritism in the awarding of daycare licences.
Parti Québécois MNA Nicolas Girard said the owners of a network of 13 daycare centres, all members of the same family, had contributed $141,500 to Liberal Party coffers over the past few years. This network of 1,000 spaces gets an annual subsidy of $10 million.
There are a couple of points to make about Girard's charges. The first is that every Quebecer is entitled to make political contributions, up to the $3,000-a-year limit set by legislation. Nothing nefarious should be read into a legal contribution.
The second point is that running subsidized daycares is usually a profitable business. Le Devoir reported last week that in 2009, private, taxpayer-subsidized daycare centres each earned on average 12 per cent net profit, or about $100,000 for a centre of 80 spaces. The state supplies about 80 per cent of their revenue. At a time when many businesses are still struggling with the fallout from the 2008 economic meltdown, a 12-per-cent return on investment is nothing to sneeze at. (And it makes top-up fees hard to tolerate.)
In theory, daycare is affordable and generally available. In practice, you can't be sure to get in, and it costs taxpayer - even those whose own kids can't find a spot - a bundle. If, on top of that, it's a cash cow for a political party, then it's time to straighten this mess out.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/editorials/Daycare+system+needs+urgent/2736032/story.html#ixzz0jTnPLzjP