Cameroonian immigrant Suzanne Minkam may soon lose both her 17-month-old daughter’s spot in a Quebec subsidized daycare and her own position as a caretaker at L’Attrait mignon daycare on Montreal’s South Shore in Longueuil due to her immigration status.
“I haven’t slept in weeks,” Minkam said. “All I do is think and stress out.”
Arriving to Quebec two years ago, Minkam holds an open work permit valid for a total of three years. She recently received an email from her daughter’s public daycare, known as a Centre de la petite enfance (CPE), that said that foreign workers with open work permits are no longer eligible for the province’s subsidized $10-a-day daycare.
Minkam also said that the loss of her daughter’s subsidized daycare spot would force her to leave her job as she attempts to juggle finding a new private daycare, caring for her daughter, and searching for new work.
“It’s going to take time to start over from zero,” she said. “To find a new private daycare, and also a new job.”
Minkam isn’t alone in her situation. According to Claudia Beaudin, general director of CPE L’Attrait-Mignon, the province’s Family Ministry contacted CPEs July 9 to clarify that only immigrant workers with a closed work permit — one tied to a specific employer — are eligible for subsidized daycare.
“It’s a real shame,” she said. “We are forgetting the rights of the child here. We are forgetting that this is a child who has already integrated well into her daycare.”
What’s more is Beaudin says that she is also reviewing around 40 cases of families of children in the family-run daycares services (RSGE), which their centre coordinates “we’re the office-coordinator of the Gare en milieu familial, we have about forty files that we’re looking at with the parents, their current status.if they’re still eligible.”
“She loves her daycare,” Beaudin said, referring to Minkam’s daughter. “And now we are putting all of that at risk for a law that is aimed at adults.”
Quebec’s subsidized childcare law, also known as the Reduced Contribution Regulation, came into effect in 2006 and states that temporary foreign workers must possess a closed working permit in order to access the province’s daycare program.
However, according to Canadian immigration lawyer Viviane Albuquerque, the law hasn’t always been enforced that way. She said that in previous years Quebec’s Family Ministry would not always inspect a parent’s work permit before covering childcare service fees.
She said the shift represents a stricter enforcement of the law by the Ministry of Family, which can undermine the very reason some immigrants opt for open work permits – meant to give workers better flexibility in finding jobs.
“(Immigrant workers) have an open work permit for many reasons, they want to protect their position in Canada, their employment.” Albuquerque said. “We have the potential for this directive to negatively affect vulnerable members of society.”
In a statement to CityNews the Quebec Family Ministry said that foreign workers: “[…] must provide a copy of their work permit issued by the federal immigration authorities, which must include their place of work and the name of their employer. If they have such a work permit, they become eligible, under the Reduced Contribution Regulation (RCR), for a subsidized place in an educational daycare service.”
Minkam says the situation has left her feeling in limbo; “I may have to leave my friends and my daughter will also have to leave her place,” she said. “I just pray that it doesn’t happen to me.”
Two other immigrant families who are also at risk of losing subsidized daycare spots, are threatening to take legal action following this directive. Lawyers for the families say the province is creating a restriction that is invalid and illegal. Unions representing daycare workers say hundreds of children could lose their daycare spots because of the new directive.
La règle qui date de la création du réseau en 1997 existe par souci d’équité envers les familles québécoises qui attendent une place. Elle doit s’appliquer. Cela dit, avant que tout geste soit posé, le MFA va analyser les dossiers des enfants qui reçoivent déjà des services.
Family Minister Suzanne Roy said in a post on X Wednesday that the rules have been in place since the start of the network of daycare centres, and calls the restriction “a matter of fairness.” She said temporary immigrants who are on an open work permit are not eligible for spots in the CPE system, but she said the ministry will analyze the files of children who already have a place.
– With files from The Canadian Press.
