Ms. Marois' 1996 project aimed to transform all child care services into not-for-profit child care centres, which meant buying back child care centres. The government made a different choice when it realized just how many spaces it would have to offer. For the government, it was not possible to earmark funding to buy spaces that already existed, and so it decided to create new spaces. The question still arises in Quebec, because parents have access to $7-a-day spaces even in for-profit child care centres.
The current problem is that for-profit child care centres require parents to pay $5, $7, $8 and $10 in addition to the $7, even though they are funded by the government at a rate of 5% less than early childhood development centres. That child care system is based on a truly lucrative vision.
The government even initiated legal action against the owners of day care centres to force them to respect the $7 rate. It is very dangerous to develop that kind of child care service. We don't want all child care services to be identical, but we want to ensure that funding is truly earmarked for the education of young people by competent staff who are trained.