Daycare owner risks losing business over Quebec belt-tightening
Families scramble after government transition forces new daycare to postpone opening
The owner of a daycare in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville says her business was supposed to open May 5, but she's been forced to postpone until the new provincial government passes its budget.
Annie Massé, the owner of Le Boisé Enchanté daycare, told CBC’s Daybreak that her daycare is set to open, and has been since early May, the only thing missing is her daycare license.
“The muffins are in the oven, we are more than ready [to open],” she said.
The new Liberal government is looking at a range of austerity measures, including freezing the number of spaces available in the public daycare system, as it struggles to deal with a deficit projected at $3.145 billion — $645 million more than the former Parti Québécois estimated.
Massé has no choice but to wait until the Liberal government votes on its budget, which is expected to be tabled early June. If she isn’t allowed to open, Massé says she’ll lose her investment.
Massé runs a subsidized private daycare, which means spots only cost parents $7 a day.
She says converting her daycare into a fully private model isn’t an option, because the system doesn’t allow that.
Parents forced to miss work
In the meantime, Massé says the families who were depending on her service are in limbo.
“The situation is pretty critical. We have families, they can’t work, they [have to] stay at home with the kids,” she said.
“This is terrible. This is really difficult,” she said.