Recruitment abroad | An exceptional measure for childcare settings
The government has discreetly authorized childcare services to continue recruiting abroad – an exemption that is difficult for the union community to explain, in light of the abolition of the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ), and while Bill 9 on strengthening secularism plunges the community into uncertainty.
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What you need to know
The government recently authorized daycare centers to continue hiring abroad to make up for the labor shortage.
The FIPEQ-CSQ, which represents more than 12,000 people working in early childhood centers, accuses the government of sending contradictory signals.
Consultations on the bill banning the wearing of religious symbols in daycares open this Tuesday in the National Assembly.
The decree of the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, Jean-François Roberge, was published in the Official Gazette of Quebec from January 7th. Basically, it exempts daycare services from the obligation to carry out a labor market impact study before recruiting abroad.
It is written that “the rate of vacant positions is higher than the average for Quebec sectors for the second quarter of 2025”, and that, therefore, “it is appropriate to add, among the exemptions […]applications for employment” in childcare settings.
The president of the Federation of Early Childhood Workers of Quebec (FIPEQ-CSQ), Anne-Marie Bellerose, sees it as “two speeches”. On the one hand, we “in fact facilitate international recruitment”, while on the other, we “create uncertainty when people arrive”, she argues.
Especially since “we recruit a lot of workers in the Maghreb”, because the educators speak French and “the recognition of their qualifications is easier”, underlines the union leader, who will be in parliamentary committee this Tuesday for the start of the study of Bill 9.
“Quebec has made the decision to exempt this sector from its suspension measure which applies to the Montreal and Laval regions in order to ensure that there is no breakdown in services in daycares and early childhood centers,” the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration explained.
The selection conditions of the new Qualified Worker Selection Program (PSTQ) concerning early childhood educators are also “less restrictive than those of the PEQ [Programme de l’expérience québécoise] “, we continued in an email.
Minister Roberge has been under fire since the announcement of the elimination of the PEQ. “It’s a bit like the end of this golden age of welcoming French people who wanted to immigrate or stay in Canada,” also regretted the French ambassador to Ottawa, Michel Miraillet, in an interview with Little Journalin December.
The office of Minister Jean-François Roberge, also responsible for secularism, did not wish to comment.
Request for moratorium
In the parliamentary committee, the president of the FIPEQ-CSQ will notably demand a moratorium on the ban on the wearing of religious symbols for educators in early childhood centers (CPE) and subsidized daycares, arguing that “no study has demonstrated what impact this would have in the environment”.
A pause would allow the ministry to determine “if it’s really an issue,” she said in an interview. “Are we talking about 3 or 4 people or 200 or 300 people [qui arborent des signes religieux] ? Let’s study the real impacts, so we can make perhaps more informed decisions,” suggests Anne-Marie Bellerose.
The bill under the microscope
The CAQ government is not only attacking the wearing of religious symbols in the early childhood network with Bill 9. It limits street prayers, prohibits public institutions from exclusively offering menus based on religious precepts (halal and kosher foods), and imposes a tightening of the screw on subsidized private schools with religious vocations, among other things.
The legislative measure, in which the government invokes the derogation provision, is greatly inspired by a voluminous report presented last August by pro-laicity jurists Christiane Pelchat and Guillaume Rousseau – they are the ones who will kick off the hearings this Tuesday morning, before the Citizen Relations Commission.
The Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) and representatives of affiliated unions such as the FIPEQ-CSQ are, for their part, expected in the afternoon. Several other organizations and experts will come and present their testimony during the week and next week.
