Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for inviting me to speak to you about what is happening in child care services.
My name is Juliette Chabot. I am the director of a child care centre, Les Chouettes de Lorette, which is in Lorette, Manitoba. Lorette is a small community where there are many francophones, and it is really nice to work in such an environment.
Our centre is attached to the École Lagimodière, which is part of the DSFM. We have a baby corner, which is very small—with only four spaces—spaces for preschoolers and others for school-aged children. We have an effective partnership with the school, and we feel well supported in providing French-language services in our centre.
Since we are attached to a French school, we always try to recruit francophone families first. Our clientele is often made up of exogamous families. Therefore, we have several little ones whose mother tongue is English. We must work very closely with these children so that they learn as much French as possible before they enter school, given the limited resources available to us.
Like any other centre, we also have to manage waiting lists. We are the only centre in Lorette offering services in French. A few years ago, we asked the government for funding to expand our centre, which was approved. However, the government has suspended our project.
When we have to provide special services to a child, these services are not always in French. In fact, instead of putting the child on a waiting list and delaying our assistance, most of the time we use English-speaking specialists to provide such services.
As for the staff, we must always recruit francophones to work in the child care service, which is honestly very difficult for us. Again, we work in partnership with the Université de Saint-Boniface, which sends us students on internships. It's a great way for us to recruit well-trained staff.
Since salaries are very low, it is a big challenge to recruit qualified staff. We must rely entirely on our partnerships with DSFM, the FPM, the Coalition francophone de la petite enfance du Manitoba and Université de Saint-Boniface. There are not enough resources to provide child care services in French.
We, too, hope to get more help from both the federal and provincial governments.
Thank you.