CCAAC welcomes new Board members
The CCAAC welcomes three new members to our Board of Directors: Brianne Goertzen and Gilary Massa Machado and Carissa Taylor. All three will bring fresh and young voices into the leadership of Canada’s child care movement. Brianne is a mother, student activist, and an elected Trustee of the River East Transcona School Division in Manitoba. Toronto-based activist and new mother Gilary is a proud Afro Latino Muslim committed to creating spaces for marginalized peoples to battle on their own terms for equality and social justice. Carissa Taylor is student at Ontario’s Brock University and serves as the National Chairperson of the Graduate Caucus of the Canadian Federation of Students.
CCAAC Board delivers annual report to AGM
CCAAC’s annual general meeting, held by teleconference on October 27, received the Board of Directors’ annual report for 2015-2016, as well as the financial statements, and confirmed the membership of the Board of Directors.
The AGM began with an excellent presentation on the child care situation in Quebec delivered by guest speaker Marie-Claude Lemieux, public affairs director for the Association Québecoise des centres de la petite enfance (AQCPE).
Marie-Claude Lemieux explained that in the past decade, Quebec’s centres de la petite enfance has been subjected to more than $500 million in funding cuts while boosting the development of a for-profit network of private daycare that are funded through tax credits. The change in government policy has allowed the for-profit sector to almost quadruple in size between 2003 and 2016, going from 26,360 to 103,319 spaces. The AQPCE warns that the Quebec Liberal government’s policy direction will inevitably attract large corporate child care chains into the province by providing them with a tax-subsidized market. Indicators show serious problems with the quality of care in the for-profit sector. These include a high incidence of complaints against both subsidized and non-subsidized for-profit providers.
