Blocking access to subsidized daycare in Quebec is a barrier to integration, asylum seekers say

Chatting with staff at Montreal's Welcome Collective, Marie is beaming. It's one of the first times in the year she's been here that she's without her toddler.

"It's a joy for me," she said.

That's because her one-and-a-half year old daughter is at daycare, and Marie got her into the subsidized spot thanks to a Quebec Court of Appeal ruling on Feb. 7 allowing asylum seekers access.

CBC News is not naming the single mother and asylum seeker who fled Angola because she fears for her safety, with her immigrant status still in limbo.

Since arriving via Roxham Road last year, Marie says it's been a struggle, mainly because she had to care for her daughter all along the way.

"I'm here to integrate," she says, speaking in almost fluent French.

"Even if I speak French, I want to learn how to speak like Quebecers speak. And I can do that now that my daughter is in daycare. I can learn. I can work."

So it was with fear and trepidation that Marie learned the Quebec government was filing a request to stay the Court of Appeal's ruling. If the request is granted, access to subsidized daycare will once again be taken away from asylum seekers.

"It's like they are putting a chain around my neck," Marie says.

'Barrier to integration'

"I wanted to integrate, I wanted to learn French," said Leila Orrillo.

Speaking from her home in Quebec City, Orrillo says that when she and her husband sought asylum after leaving Peru, her first goal was to learn to communicate. But then she got pregnant and gave birth to her first child.

"I was given access to free French lessons but not to subsidized daycare," she said in Spanish.

"I hoped my daughter could go to a private daycare, which isn't covered, but one month cost as much as our apartment's rent."

Leila Orrillo had to quit her French classes to stay home and look after her daughter because a private daycare cost as much as monthly rent. (Submitted by Leila Orrillo)

Orrillo had to quit the classes and stay home with her daughter, and soon after, a newborn son.

"It created a barrier to integration," Orrillo said about the lack of access to subsidized daycare.

"It's now been almost five years since we arrived. I've since been approved for asylum and I'm still not fluent in French."

Orrillo says she worries about fellow newcomers who want to be here and yet, can't integrate.

That worry is exactly why Sibel Ataogul took on the case to challenge Quebec's policy to not allow asylum seekers access to subsidized daycare.

"These are some of the most precarious and vulnerable people in Quebec," the human rights lawyer said.

"They're here. They get work permits because we want them to integrate our workforce, but we don't allow them a place in subsidized daycare."

In its unanimous ruling in early February, the Court of Appeal found the government's policy discriminatory because it unfairly prevented women from participating in the job market.

"We want [aslyum seekers] to work while they're here, but they don't get access to daycare, so they can't work. And for the vast majority, these are women," Ataogul said.

"I'm going to fight until the end."

A child at a Montreal Centre de la petite enfance. There are waiting lists for the subsidized daycare centres in Quebec. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada )

Government argues expense is too much

As the Quebec government demands a $1 billion reimbursement from the federal government regarding expenses over asylum seekers, it says the ruling adding a service is just too much.

As of Dec. 31, 2023, 55 per cent of asylum seekers currently residing in Canada — 160,651 people out of 289,047 — were in Quebec.

"We are very near the breaking point," Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette said on Rosemary Barton Live.

"So having the court imposing us to offer another type of services to asylum seekers, we're just saying, the capacity is not there anymore."

The Court of Appeal should rule on the government's request for a stay on the decision in the coming weeks.

Back at the Welcome Collective, Marie says she had started to look for a job and wanted to also take French classes. She's now had to put that on hold, knowing her daughter could be pulled from daycare any day.