Is childcare really $7.00/day?

We hear a lot in BC about Quebec's $7.00/day daycare, but many people don't understand how it works. How can someone possible run a child care centre on $7/day per child??! Who covers the rest?

According to the Government of Quebec Website:


"The reduced-contribution program was implemented for children who are under five years of age. It enables the parents to have access to childcare services in return for a daily reduced contribution which includes a basic contribution of $7.55 and, if applicable, an additional parental contribution varying according to the family income.

Modulation of the parental contribution
Since April 22, 2015, an additional contribution applies to parents required to pay the basic contribution ($7.55 per day, per child) and whose family income exceeds $50,545.

For families with a family income exceeding $50,545 and not above $75,820, the daily contribution per child will increase from $7.55 to $8.25. For families with a family income exceeding $75,820, the daily rate per child is set at an amount established according to a progressive modulation to reach a maximum amount of $20.70 for a family income of $158,820 or higher.

 

This additional contribution is paid to Revenu Québec  when the tax return is filed. To facilitate payment, the parents who want it can request that their employers increase their payroll deductions accordingly. The additional contribution is added to the basic contribution which remains payable directly to the subsidized childcare service.

Beneficiaries of subsidized childcare services (early childhood centres, daycares or managers of childcare services in a family environment), will give the RL-30 slip to parents required to pay the basic contribution. The slip will be given to them at the latest on February 29 and will enable them to determine the additional contribution payable on their income tax return.

 

The basic contribution and the additional contribution will be indexed annually, effective January 1, 2016. 

Parents who are beneficiaries of the Social Assistance Program or the Social Solidarity Program are eligible for the exemption from payment of the reduced contribution.

 

The reduced-contribution places are provided by childcare centres, subsidized day-care centres and subsidized home childcare providers.

Families (including blended families) with 3 or more children who frequent, during a same year, one or more than one subsidized childcare service for which they are required to pay the base contribution, will pay an additional contribution for 2 children only."

In order to qualify for the reduced contribution space, you have to:

• be a Canadian citizen; 
• be a permanent resident; 
• be staying in Québec for work purposes and hold a work permit; 
• be a foreign student who holds a certificate of acceptance and receives a scholarship granted by the goverment of Québec pursuant to the policy applying to foreign students in Québec colleges and universities; 
• be authorized to stay in Québec under the immigration laws.

There is an online tool here: http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/budget/outils/garde-net-en.asp  to help parents calculate their estimated cost of child care.

The $7/day child care program sounds fantastic, but there are just not enough spaces to meet the demand. Many parents are left having to delay their return to work, or choosing to send their child to a private daycare where they will end up paying $40/day.

And who pays the balance? Well...Quebec's income taxes are the highest in all of Canada. See here: http://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/taxcomparison/tax-comparison-2015.htm

Hopefully we don't have to wait too long to find a space...and luckily we are flexible with days and hours.

Sunset

The sun has set on our West Coast life, but as we all know, the sun always rises again. We will be back one day, definitely to visit, and hopefully to live again.

What a beautiful flight that was. We took off over the water, turned left and flew right over my parent's house. Then my brother's. Then as we headed East we had a great view of the Coast Mountains and Maple Ridge, our hometown of 6 years and birthplace of our son. We passed Pitt Lake, Alouette Lake, Stave Lake, and Harrison Lake before turning South to cross the continent on the USA side of the border. It was smooth sailing until a bumpy patch just before landing in Toronto. We are here for 3 nights until Franck arrives, then on to Montreal to begin our adventure!

One week to go...

Well, we have approximately one week to go until we move 3687 kilometres /2291 miles (as the crow flies). I am so glad we are flying most of the way...it's 4536 kilometres /2818 miles by the fastest driving route...which would take 42 hours without traffic and without stopping, to eat, sleep or pee...let alone giving our son some time to run around and stretch his legs. We had considered driving, but I think it would have taken us about 10 days.

We have our standby tickets on Westjet and are aiming to leave on Monday next week as long as everything goes as planned. The moving truck comes on Sunday to pick up all our stuff, we will ship the car on Monday morning, put a few boxes and extra bags of clothes in on a cargo plane and hopefully get on a flight Monday evening. We will be flying to Toronto, spending a night or two with Franck's mom and step-dad, and then driving the rest of the way to Montreal.

We have the spent the last two months with my mum and dad, getting our fill of love from them and hoping they are filling up their tanks as well.  Monday is going to be one of the hardest days in my life. I've never lived more than an hour away from my mum and dad, so being 3687 kilometres away is going to be extremely difficult. I've been avoiding thinking about how sad I am going to be, how painful it will be to say goodbye and how guilty I feel about moving their only grandchild so far away. I'm sure that day will bring a lot of tears, but at the same time I am very much looking forward to a new start, and giving our son some amazing opportunities.

Types of Child Care in Quebec

Being an Early Childhood Educator and having run a daycare myself, I am pretty familiar with the types of child care offered in BC. Quebec is a different story. Not only are the names of child care types different, they are also (obviously) in French. I'm still a little confused, but according to the Services Quebec website:

Recognized childcare services
A recognized childcare service holds a permit issued by the ministère de la Famille or is recognized by a home childcare coordinating office.

The types of recognized childcare services are the following:

• -childcare centres (CPEs or Centre Petite Enfance)
• A childcare centre is a non-profit organization or a cooperative that provides reduced-contribution spaces to no more than 80 children. It offers full-time or part-time services.
• -subsidized day care centres
• -non-subsidized day care centres
• A day care centre is under the responsibility of a natural or legal person or a Native band council, and may care for no more than 80 children. It offers full-time or part-time services. 
  
  A subsidized day care centre provides reduced-contribution spaces, while a non-subsidized day care centre sets its own daily rate that the parent must pay. 

Some home childcare services are also recognized. 

          -A home childcare service recognized by a home childcare coordinating office is under the responsibility of a natural person and may care for no more than 9 children. If more than 6 children are cared for, the person in charge of the service must be assisted by another adult. 

Most home childcare services recognized by a coordinating office provide reduced-contribution spaces and offer full-time or part-time services. 

Childcare services that are not recognized
A childcare service that is not recognized is not required to hold a permit issued by the Ministère or be recognized by a home childcare coordinating office.

The types of childcare services that are not recognized are, in particular, the following:

• -community drop-in day care centre
• A community drop-in day care centre is a temporary childcare service offered by a community organization as part of its mission or in the context of a specific intervention with parents or children. The services are offered in blocks of 3 or 4 hours, and costs vary from $0 to $5 an hour. 
• -nursery school
• A nursery school is not required to hold a day care or childcare centre permit if it began its activities no later than October 25, 2005. A nursery school may care for, regularly and for periods not exceeding 4 hours a day, a stable group of at least 7 children between the ages of 2 and 5, with activities conducted over a fixed period. 
• -childcare services at school
• A school board or a private educational institution may offer childcare services to children between 5 and 12 years old who attend the school.
  
  The children may attend the childcare service
  • before class in the morning;
  • during the lunch period;
  • after school.

Certain home childcare services are not recognized either.

           -A home childcare service that is not recognized by a home childcare coordinating office may care for no more than 6 children. It sets its own daily rate that the parent must pay and cannot offer reduced-contribution spaces.

Finding child care

Last week I registered my son for the child-care waiting list in Quebec. We move there in two weeks, so I wanted to get on the waiting list now so that hopefully we can get a child care space by August or September. We now have an address there, so I was able to fill in the online registration form at https://www.laplace0-5.com.  

In Quebec there is government-funded child care, and one centralized waiting list for all child care centres in the province. I found this helpful because it means I didn't have to call or email every child care centre in our new neighbourhood to go on each waiting list. I emailed one, and the person that replied to me let me know about the centralized waiting list, and saved me a lot of "googling".
On the "Laplace 0-5" website, you create yourself a profile and fill in all your details as well as your child-care needs, and you can login and update your information at anytime. Then you select all the child care centres that you would be interested in, and you are automatically put on the waiting list for those centres.

The only issue for me, is that I have not actually visited any of the child care centres yet, to decide if they are a good fit for our family, so I just picked all the centres within a few kilometres of our new place, and we will go and visit them once we have settled in our new location. I really hope we find something that works for our family.

Unfortunately, there is no way to find out where we are on the waiting list as the FAQ sectionn of the website says, "Your position is different on the waiting list of each daycare you have signed up for. Various factors are involved in a child's position on a waiting list".Luckily we are not pressed to find child care right away, so it doesn't really matter too much how long we have to wait...

My posiiton on hockey

I'm sitting here watching game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Penguins and Sharks. My family and I are routing for the Sharks since they are a West Coast team and the underdogs in this series. The Canucks had no chance this year of making the playoffs.
After finding out that my family and I are moving to Montreal, and knowing that I'm a pretty big Vancouver Canucks fan...a lot of people have suggested that I will become a Canadiens fan. I DON'T THINK SO! I have been a Canucks fan since I started watching hockey and I doubt I will ever be persuaded to jump teams and start cheering for the Hab's unless all other Canadian teams have been knocked out of the playoffs. I do realize this makes me a minority in Montreal, but I'm ok with that. I know that hockey is pretty big over there, and I look forward to seeing a game now and then.
The Sharks are down 3-2 in the 3rdd period, and there's only 2 minutes and 53 seconds left in the game. Its a nail biter!

T- 14 days till we move to Lachine.