So you want to open a day-care centre?

January 27, 2014 | Isabelle Patenaude

Childcare services can take many forms from day-care centres to facilities to private-home centres to early childhood centres (CPE), and it can get very confusing. But one thing is for sure: all day-care services for young children in Quebec necessarily fall under the Ministère de la Famille.

What type of day-care centre will it be?

You’re thinking of opening a facility? According to the Educational Childcare Act, you need a licence to offer services to more than six children. If you’re considering a private-home centre, you can choose to have your centre recognized by a Coordinating Office or not. Your centre must satisfy certain conditions to be recognized. These are listed on the Ministère de la Famille’s web site. Whether your facility is recognized or not, you will want to offer quality services that are based on the child’s development, health, needs and safety.

The human side of day-care centres

If you open a day-care centre, it undoubtedly means you are passionate about and love children. Like parents, you have their development at heart. By leaving their children with educators, parents entrust them with what they hold most dear. Given this responsibility, it is important to react adequately in case of an emergency. It is highly recommended that you possess and maintain a Standard First Aid Certification and essential to have a first-aid kit on hand. In order to really know who your children are, find out about them at the time of registration. Ask parents to tell you about their children’s routine, eating habits, behaviour, fears, favourite outdoor and indoor activities, and so on.

The contractual aspects of a day-care centre

You must then set business hours and decide on a daily rate. Other questions arise: Will you take in little babies? You must think everything through very carefully then enter into a written agreement with parents. This agreement should contain the following:

Name and coordinates of day-care centre
Parents’ name and contact information
Duration of the agreement
Description of services
Business hours of the day-care centre
Fees and payment terms and conditions (applicable charges in the event of delay or late payment)
Annual vacation period and days during the year when the centre is closed (i.e. public holidays)
Applicable mandatory information from the Office de la protection du consommateur. For the document detailing the legislation, click here: Rappel des dispositions législatives et réglementaires applicables aux ententes de services de garde (in french only).

Your day-care centre from a tax perspective

On the fiscal side, as the operator of a private-home day-care centre, you will be considered a self-employed worker. Revenu Québec makes available various online tools and documents including the brochure “Home Childcare providers” which provides essential tax-related information such as eligible expenses, tax returns and contributions. Each year, you must provide parents with a statement of childcare expenses (also available online at Revenu Québec).

A day-care centre and its equipment and supplies

Here’s where the expertise of BB Education comes in handy. Our specialists have developed “turnkeys” to help you plan out and furnish your facility by age group and activity corner.

If you are venturing out on your own, you will have to think about the space that is available for your day-care as well as the overall layout and configuration of the rooms. As you and the children will spend the better part of the day there, it is important to make the right choices to ensure the comfort and safety of all. These choices include the proper furniture (Activity Tables - Metal Legs - Laminate Tabletops, Baby Changers - Horizontal, etc.), chairs for the children (Stackable Tubular Chairs, etc.) and for you (Ray-L Chair,Ergonomical Chair for Adults), but also games and toys. Play objects should be both educational and fun so that children can learn and enjoy themselves at the same time!

After reading the above and considering the ins and outs of setting up a day-care centre, do you still want to forge ahead with your project?