The increase in public day camp rates is inevitable for 2023 - despite Action Gatineau’s opposition during municipal council budget study
Sonia Roy
The week of Gatineau's 2023 budget study, which took place at the beginning of November, was an opportunity for the city's authorities to share the most recent data on municipal services with residents and district councillors. One of the presentations by the Service des loisirs, des sports et du développement des communautés concerned the pricing of public day camps, specifically its increase and Gatineau's intention to have an eventual 50/50 fee split with resident citizens (100% of the fees paid by non-residents). Since 2016, the fees for a place in a public day camp have never increased. It was only in 2022 that the $45 fee for basic public day camp services in Gatineau was increased to $46.
Two possible scenarios were proposed to municipal councillors during this presentation, the first of which was to reach a 50/50 ratio by 2023, and the second, by 2026. In terms of fees to be paid by citizens, the increase was not minimal for the first scenario: fees for a day camp place (basic service) would thus rise from $46 per week in 2022 to $100 per week in 2023. Childcare fees (early morning and end of afternoon) were not spared from this increase: it would cost $115 per week in 2023 to benefit from it, compared to $56 per week in 2022. An additional increase of $5 per year would be applied until 2026.
The second scenario proposes a more gradual increase, in order to reach the 50/50 fee split proposed by the City by 2026: the weekly fee for a day camp place (without childcare) would reach $60 in 2023, $75 in 2024, $95 in 2025 and $115 in 2026.
Reactions to this raise were swift. Some councillors immediately commented on several aspects of the proposed fee changes: the 50/50 ratio and its origin were questioned, in addition to the planned major fee jump, a mandate that the former administration had given to the Service des loisirs, des sports et du développement des communautés. An amendment was proposed by Councillor Tiffany-Lee Norris Parent, who would have liked to see the increase in day camp fees limited, in the same way as the more general 2.9% increase in other City services, until the upcoming review of accessibility programs. "Indexation, or a small catch-up, could still be talked about,” said Parent, “but here we are talking about changing the social function of our day camp service, and I don't agree with that. Especially since they say we're going to come back during the year with an analysis of our accessibility programs, I wonder if we couldn't at least wait until then to [...] get a more complete picture.”
Caroline Murray, Isabelle N. Miron, Bettyna Bélizaire, Alicia Lacasse-Brunet and Louis Sabourin agreed: "In four years, we have doubled the [costs of] services,” said Louis Sabourin. “I don't know of any service that doubles in more than four years" In relation to the comparative argument that private day camps have a much higher rate than public day camps, Sabourin added: "If I compare public and private health services, it's as if we were giving the argument that from tomorrow, we're going to put a rate on the hospital because the private sector costs more.”
In addition to Mayor France Bélisle, councillors Olive Kamanyana, Mario Aubé, Jean Lessard and Denis Girouard opposed the amendment, pointing out the quality of services offered in camps, the rates of other cities in Quebec, the rates of private camps and the freeze on rates for public day camps in Gatineau since 2016. The amendment was rejected, with eight votes in favour and 12 votes against. The recommendation to increase day camp fees for residents and non-residents as proposed in scenario number two was finally adopted at the November 10, 2022 review of recommendations - for the year 2023 only. An amendment proposed by Steven Boivin, which calls for the compilation of post-increase data during the 2024 budget review to determine the appropriate increase for 2024, 2025 and 2026, was also adopted.
Photo caption: City Council at the November 10, 2022 meeting.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Ville de Gatineau