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EXCERPTS
Daycare is big business in Quebec. It has been political gold ever
since $5-a-day daycare was introduced more than a decade ago by the
Parti Quebecois.
...
Daycare has become a $2-billion monster no party dare touch. Even
in these hard times, the latest Quebec budget found money for a few
more places. But for months now, black clouds have been gathering, in
the form of allegations of payoffs and irregularities.
A service that is meant to provide small children with a head
start on their education, and parents a helping hand, has become a
"racket," the PQ has charged. That's political hyperbole, so far at
least. Family Minister Tony Tomassi has rejected all allegations as
false.
But it is certainly good news that Auditor-General Renaud
Lachance has announced plans for "preliminary work" toward opening an
inquiry into how daycare is funded, operated, inspected, and allocated.
It has been more than 10 years, Lachance pointed out, since his office
has had a look at how the system is run.
In March Ezio Carosielli, owner of 10 Montreal daycares, told La
Presse that he knew of people who, having been awarded a daycare permit,
immediately resold it. Carosielli estimated the permits were worth
between $250,000 and $500,000.
The PQ, meanwhile, claims that Liberal Party donors seem to have
an inside track on buying permits. The PQ found that a family of Liberal
donors was able to buy a daycare permit for 60 spaces, after the permit
was awarded to another Liberal backer.
There's a lot at stake here. If permits are being awarded to a
bidder who seems unlikely to ever set up a daycare centre, as alleged,
then the public needs to know about it.
Last month, the Charest government hastily cobbled together a
series of safeguards it insists will do the job. They include requiring a
daycare owner to make public all shareholders or partners. An owner
must give the government 90 days' notice before selling a permit.
Regional authorities will take over from the minister in allocating
permits. Publicly-funded private daycare centres will not be allowed to
charge more than $7-a-day. If they do, they'll lose their subsidies.
Three times as many daycare-centre inspectors - a jump from 18 to 58 -
will enforce compliance with health and safety standards.
...
- reprinted from The Gazette