PQ, QS square off on overhaul of Quebec's public daycare system

Seven days into the Quebec election campaign, party leaders unveiled child care promiseson Saturday.

Parti Qubcois(PQ)Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondonsaysthe party is committed to to making daycare accessible for all.

If elected, he says, he wouldtransformthe province's nearly 119,000private daycare spots into public ones over the next five years.

"We know there's about 50,000 children waiting for a spot,"St-Pierre PlamondonsaidSaturday while at aQuebec City daycare.

"We can also assume that there's alsotens of thousands of parents at the moment who aren't able to participatein the labour market because of the shortage of spots in daycares."

The Coalition Avenir Qubec has already promised an additional 37,000 spots for children in the network, but St-Pierre Plamondon said his party would add 15,000 on top of that. That wouldbringthe total number publicly funded spotspromised to 135,000, at an estimated cost of $225 million.

The cost forboth promises combined comes to$768 million per year, the leader said.The party would turn to income taxes to pay for the network.

Micro daycares

QS also took to big daycare promises over the weekend, calling for the creation of what co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Duboiscalled"micro public daycares."

Nadeau-Dubois says the modelis aimed at regions where there aren't enough children to justify the creation of full sizedpublicly funded daycare centres.

He saidparents inremote regions arestruggling the most to find affordable care for their children.

"A new model [is needed]," he said while at a stop in Rimouskion Saturday. "Anew way to create multiple micro public daycares all across the territory of Quebec, to be able to answer the needs of those small communities."

He put the cost at an estimated $610 millionper year.

The party is alsopromising to convert as many private daycare spots into public onesas soon as possible, with the goal of at least37,000 new publicspots within a first mandate.

St-Pierre PlamondonsaidQS's plan doesn't go far enough in addressing labour shortages in the province compoundedby a lack of public daycares.He pointed to the party'spromise to provide a benefit of $870 per month for families who can't yet find a place for their young ones in daycare.

"The urgency is in creating spaces and finding a solution for everyone," he said while in Quebec City."I do not see the logic of taking public funds to aggravate the labour shortage."

Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade promised access to subsidized daycare for all Quebec children. Anglade told reporters at a local daycareon Friday that no fewer than 52,000 kids are still waiting for a spot.

She said her party would create 67,000 extra spots at a cost of $1.1 billion per year, with funds coming from a recently signed daycare agreement with the federal government.