Parents Feeling Neglected During Daycare Service Reductions

Join TVC22 host Thomas Stockting as he meets up to speak with Councilor for Ward 5, Andre Lalonde about his political career thus far, whether he will run next year & changes to the municipal day care services.

The episode begins with Councilor Lalonde reminiscing on his rise in politics, from his being elected, to his current exploits. 

Right now, he is in his 2nd term, having been in this position for the past 7 years, with a year and a half left before the end of his current mandate.

One of the projects that Councilor Lalonde took on before his time in office was being a part of the committee that built the playground in the Jules-Saumure park. He highlights the importance of this project, as Jules-Saumure was a respected firefighter before he passed away in 2005, and 300 volunteers helped in completing the project. 

Having always been interested in politics, and staying up to date on provincial and federal matters, he reasoned that going into municipal politics was the natural thing to do. Once he was elected in 2014, he and the other new councilors worked hard to fix and improve upon the old administration. During that time, Councilor Lalonde took his time testing the waters, and learning the job of being a counselor.

Councilor Lalonde concludes the first half of this episode by saying that he is not yet sure if he will return to the municipal council, citing personal projects as the main reason.

After the break, the conversation shifted to the recent developments in the daycare service. The decision that the municipal council came to was to increase the cost of services rather than to reduce said services, in order to meet the allocated budget.  Councilor Lalonde notes that although the budget itself hasn’t changed, operational costs for daycare services keep increasing. 

One of the biggest issues is having to maintain ratios between kids and daycare workers, as needs of the parents could change weekly. Further, smaller rural areas like Clarence-Rockland have trouble finding enough clientele to fill the ratios in general due to smaller populations.

Councilor Lalonde notes that these are all difficult decisions that had to be made, and that not everyone would be happy despite the council’s best efforts. The proposed changes are not out of ordinary, as a study was done on daycares similar in size to the ones in Rockland, and all were already practicing said service changes. 

He also touches on parents citing a lack of discussion from the city, and how they had a limited window in between municipal council meetings to voice their concerns for the proposed changes. In hindsight, the department for the daycare services could have notified parents sooner before the council meetings.

Thomas also brings up questions regarding the timing of the budget change, and why the proposed changes had to be placed in every daycare in Clarence-Rockland, and not a select few. Councilor Lalonde explains that with the new contract coming in July, the department for the daycare services wanted to outline the changes before the new contract would take place.

In response to the question about changing only certain daycare's policies, Councilor Lalonde explains it would be hard to pick which daycare without making other daycares feel neglected.

The interview concludes with Thomas thanking Councilor Lalonde for his time.