$7 Daycare Defines Quebec as Fiscally Challenged

 "...Denis Coderre, the politician, exclaimed that $7 daycare, "defines us as people." A professor at the University of Montreal adds, solemnly, "it is a symbol of Quebec's identity!" Link{Fr}

I actually agree with these two, but as you can imagine, not in the way they imagine........

For many taxpayers across Canada, watching Quebec's orgy of social spending, spiraling ever upward (much of it financed by taxpayers outside Quebec,) can be an infuriating and frustrating experience;

Many of you ask yourself quite openly; "Are they nuts, or am I?"

Seven dollar a day daycare, extended maternal and parental leave, low tuition rates for post secondary education, free in-vitro fertilization, cheap electricity rates, free prescription drugs, etc. etc.
On and on the list goes and it sounds like a famously good deal, a recipe for social harmony where people may pay more taxes, but receive so much more in benefits.

Many, if not most Quebecers are proud of the system they have created. Defenders of the mommy-state model, known in Quebec as the 'Gouvernemaman,' claim that Quebecers fund the system through higher taxes, (38% in Quebec versus 31% in Canada) and that it is a deliberate societal choice to pay more taxes for more services. 
In this respect, Quebec citizens may be unique in the world.

But is Quebec's policy of tax and overspending really something to be proud of?
More importantly does it make for a healthier and happier society? Hmmm....

The first thing to consider, is that as things stand today, the 'Gouvernemaman.' is not sustainable.

Even with transfer payments from Ottawa, there is not enough money coming into the government coffers to pay for the entitlements and so heavy borrowing has raised the province's debt load five-fold since 1984, making Quebec one of the most indebted societies in the world, a fact defenders of the system conveniently ignore.

Now comparing Quebec society to say, that of Alberta, which despite being wildly more affluent, doesn't offer these extended social services is difficult, because Quebec finances a part of these services with debt.
It's like comparing your lifestyle to that of your neighbor who is living it up on credit card debt, while you dutifully pay off your bills each month.

But putting the debt problem aside and with all other facts considered, an impartial observer would still come to the conclusion that the Quebec model is an unmitigated disaster.
In fact, it is so dysfunctional, it should serve as a global example of what can go wrong when governments run amok.

The first thing to consider, is that the Quebec government, despite the enormous taxing and borrowing, must still rob other programs to help pay for these perks and benefits.

The health system is so under-financed that waiting lists for surgeries extend into months and months and sometimes years and years. Hospital emergency rooms are operating at an average of 130% capacity and patients have an average wait of about twenty hours before being looked after.
Quebec has the highest penetration of private medicine of any province with services from the diagnostic to actual surgeries being offered for pay. The government turns a blind eye, because it is helping ease the congestion.
The wait time for a colonoscopy in one Montreal hospital is up to four years and so doctors unauthorized to do the procedure by the health board are offering patients a private alternative for about $500 to $600.
How do you spin the fact that 25% of Quebecers don't have a family doctor?
According to Health Minster Yves Bolduc, we should look on the bright side, the fact that 75% of Quebecers do have a family doctor!

Quebec roads and bridges are so neglected that having an overpass come crashing down or a bridge falling is something that Quebecers come to expect. Everyday, roads overpasses and bridges are closed on an emergency basis to effect emergency repairs that are usually nothing more than patch up jobs.
While Quebec students boycott classes to lower, some of the lowest tuition fees in Canada, the  university system is woefully under-financed.

Let's look at a poster boy of Quebec's social programs, the famous seven dollars a day daycare, which defenders have the audacity to tell us actually makes money for the government.

"Pierre Fortin, an economics professor at the University of Quebec at Montreal, presented his findings that for every dollar Quebec invests, it recoups $1.05 while Ottawa receives a 44-cent windfall."

 UQAM, need I say more?

Yup, defenders of the program, live in a fantasy world where every dollar spent by the government on daycare returns $1.49.

As one blogger pointed out, if such is the case, the government should pour billions and billions more into the system, filling all the demand for daycare places while making money to boot!

Such is the fantasy of the deluded and those who want to be deluded, including a Montreal Gazette columnist, copy and paste expert, Janet Bagnall, who repeated the outrageous nonsense here.

The first contention of these defenders, is that the subsidized daycare program has successfully put 70,000 Quebec women back to work, who would otherwise stay at home.

Poor Alberta, without $7 a day daycare, the province must be lagging far behind Quebec in the number of women in the workforce.

Credit l'antagoniste

errrr.....maybe not!

Nobody will deny that daycare allows women to return to the job market, but it is the cost of this daycare program in Quebec that is so outrageous.
Because the government runs daycare, employees are no longer babysitters, but are now unionized 'educators' and make up to $20 an hour plus benefits.

When first created in 1997, the subsidized daycare program (with non-unionized employees) had about 100,000 children in its care, at a cost of 526 million.
Today the program has a little more than 200,000 children (a little more than double,) but costs over 2 billion dollars, almost four times as much!

And of course, being unionized brings the added benefit of mandatory strikes and work stoppages every now and then.
Read a sad history of the program.  Historique des CPE{Fr}

Notwithstanding, those who defend the program, tell us it is money well spent, because it creates employment and economic activity.

They should all be forced to watch this video.

Let's break down the millions and billions spent on daycare by the government to numbers that we can comprehend.

The government spends 2 billion dollars to provide daycare for 200,000 which works out to $10,000 per child or $200 per week!
If a family puts two children into daycare the subsidy is $400 per week, that's right..$400

How about those 70,000 new jobs, created because of cheap daycare, which defenders of the system like to crow about.
Well, divide the $2 billion cost of the program by the number of jobs it created (70,000) and it turns out that each job costs the government about $28,000 per year to support, a little high considering that the average wage that the Quebec women earn is $28,500!
The math gets even more alarming when one subtracts from that average wage $1,750 (one child) or ($3,500) the portion that parents contribute to daycare annually.

Let's remember that the program was conceived to allow women to get into the workforce who could otherwise not afford to. The program wasn't designed for lawyers or doctors.
How the government or defenders of the system can justify spending $28,000 to support a job that pays less, is the million dollar $2 billion question!

Added to this, is the farcical situation where everyone but everyone is eligible, even millionaires and so it's no wonder that the Quebec run daycare system is desperately short of places!
There is no centralized wait-list and so scoring one of the rare vacancies is a matter of who you know or how much you are willing to pay under the table.

By the way, you don't even need a job to qualify your child for subsidized daycare.
You can drop off the little tyke in your Rolls-Royce, have a spa day or go shopping in Ogilvy's or Holt-Renfrew, secure in the knowledge that taxpayers are subsidizing your child's care!
Wonderful!
Think I'm exaggerating?

Here's a story told by David Descôteaux, one of Quebec's best bloggers on issues of econonics.
On a television show discussing Qebec's $7 daycare;

".... talk to Mauricio, a taxi driver in Notre Dame de Grace. One morning, Mauricio stops his car outside an opulent home in Westmount. "A lady comes out of this chateau, he tells us, bypasses the impressive Hummer that is parked in the entrance, and jumps into my taxi with her granddaughter. I drive them to the daycare and then I bring the lady home.

"Excuse me? The cost of the taxi ride exceeds the $ 7 that this lady pays for child care expenses for the whole day. Meanwhile, the boy of a mother from Lachine  drives a rusty 1995 Tercel, and is stuck on a three-year waiting list! Link{Fr}

Readers, if you're shaking your head in disbelief, I sympathize.

Hey...wait a second
On re-reading the story above, I get the sinking feeling it is an exaggeration, another famous 'Speak White' concoction, complete with the requisite evil anglo from Westmount as the antagonist.
But I digress.....

The Quebec daycare system is so ill-conceived, expensive and poorly run that one has to suspend critical thinking (are you listening Ms Bagnall?) to believe that it is a worthwhile program.

It's no wonder that in the thirteen years since its inception, every single province and state which looked at the Quebec model of daycare, rejected it out of hand.

The fact that Quebecers are proud of this program boggles the mind and puts into question the intelligence of the average voter.

The first rule of sound financial management, is something every head of household masters early on is......Never overpay.

How many families would choose to hire a babysitter at a rate of $20 per hour plus another $8 for benefits?
Who would choose to pay $15 for a glass of orange juice..... only the government.

Seven dollar a day daycare is an unmitigated financial disaster and those who defend it are the direct beneficiaries or outright idiots, adherents to the 'Broken window fallacy.'

For those in the rest of Canada, a bit jealous of the program, remember the consequences of overpaying for anything.
It means less money to pay for other things, like bridges and hospitals.