Educational childcare services network

Educational childcare services have been available in Québec for 25 years now. They provide essential support so that parents, and particularly women, can participate in the job market. They make a significant contribution to maintaining family, work and school balance, and to overall child development.

During the past year, the public health crisis has highlighted the essential nature of these services and their strategic role in reopening the Québec economy. However, this situation has also led to various observations that call for reflection about the network’s structure and future deployment. The findings in the report of the Auditor General of Québec on the accessibility of educational childcare services, tabled in fall 2020, also point in the same direction.

In essence, Québec currently finds itself in a situation that is conducive to a major shift that would optimize the network and thereby better meet the present and future needs of families.

In light of these observations and findings, the Québec government must study ways to make the educational childcare network more effective and more accessible, in order to:

• Ensure equal opportunities by facilitating access to quality services that guarantee the health and safety of children and promote the development of their full potential.
• Enable parents to contribute to the Québec economy;

To undertake this, the Ministère de la Famille is carrying out an extensive consultation process until June 2021 aimed at discovering possible solutions. The consultation will take place in different stages to reach target groups and is based on this reflection document .

As part of the consultation, the Ministère invited all members of the public to share their opinion by answering a short questionnaire on the issues and priorities relating to the educational childcare network.