By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

The Fédération des Intervenantes en Petite Enfance du Quebec (FIPEQ) started a series of demonstrations across the province with the possibility of a coming strike should the provincial government continue to show a lack of interest in negotiating. March 31 will mark one year since FIPEQ handed in its request explaining the urgency in its demands.

For the moment, there is no strike mandate, however FIPEQ president Valerie Gagnon told The Suburban that the possibility is not off the table. “We are mobilizing our members (in demonstrations) to put pressure on the government, however we won’t wait forever if they continue to remain silent.”

The primary demands include improved salaries in consideration of inflation and staff retention. Some CPE workers are paid as low as $18 an hour — with a medium annual salary of $45,000 for CPE educators. “This is not acceptable,” Gagnon said.

“The government announced its intention to build more CPE centres. They can invest millions in concrete buildings but there is no personnel to fill those spaces. They are approaching this from the wrong angle,” Gagnon explained.

Currently there are 32,000 children on the waitlist and the system is short 18,000 educators, according to Gagnon. She said educators are walking off the job as salaries do not correspond to their cost of living. “Those who stay are under a lot of pressure as they become irreplaceable due to the shortage of staff.” In 2022, 3,000 educators left their posts while 3,200 vacant spots were already unfilled.

According to those statistics, the existing establishments are operating with nearly a 20 per cent staff shortage. “What good will it do to open more establishments without first resolving the underlying cause of these issues? The government’s plan is to build a bunch of empty buildings?” Gagnon said.

According to Gagnon, home daycares have also taken a particular hit as the caregivers are responsible for providing meals. “When food prices go up, they have to fork the bill. It’s not like a family who can choose to downgrade to frozen pizza to save some cash, these people have strict nutritional guidelines to follow.” n