Daycare freeze
According to the CJAD website, as of this week anyone using the susbsidized $7 a day daycares can expect that to be the only cost. According to the news blurb:
Starting Thursday, $7 a day will mean $7 a day. Daycares that try to charge more, risk losing their funding.
On the one hand, it’s good news for Montrealers who rely on the $7/day centers. I realize how frustrating it would be to expect a specific cost only to be hit with requests for more money.
There’s a flip side though - what will this new freeze mean in terms of quality? Will food be sacrificed? If the extra costs were covering a big, healthy lunch, does this mean that now parents will be learning their kids are being served hot dogs and french fries? Will field trips be cut completely? After all, they only mention that there won’t be any further tolerance for extra money from the parents; it doesn’t say the government will be picking up the slack to ensure that these daycares will maintain the same level of quality. It’s truly a catch-22, I think. If my girls were in daycare, I would worry about where the balance is.
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My daughter is in $7-a-day daycare, and we love it. I had similar daycare for my son when we lived in New York, and it cost $16,000 a year (only $5,000 of which was tax-deductible). I would gladly contribute more to the Quebec system, but I understand the reasons they don’t want to ask parents for more. I wonder if parents can make stealth contributions??
Our daughter is in one that charges a bit more. This news really worries me because I have found that the extra money we pay goes a long way. I don’t think we could ask for a better daycare experience. I understand that fixing a set cost will help keep the cost under control, but I do worry that we would have to choose between something much more expensive or something with less for the kids as you mention.
I dont have a child in daycare, but I do work in one, and yes we do a lot of things with children, serving healthy snacks, playing with them, keeping them dry and safe and being there for them when they need us. My daycare we ask that the parents make there lunches and bring it for them. We also try to come up with things for them to do everyday, and down here in the U.S., we provide a lot of care for your children, and the cost for a week, in my daycare at least, is between $140-160 (US dollars). So i don’t see how the ones in Quebec are managing, if they are running on $7 a day. I would seriously look into that, as where you have less pay, you also have unhappy workers, and that stress could be passed onto your children, and they may not even want to go there anymore. So I would look into how the center is faring, despite what the government says.