Daycare Update

Entry: in-san-i-ty
Function: Noun.
Definition according to Merriam-Webster:

A) extreme folly or unreasonableness b : something utterly foolish or unreasonable

I would add: Dealing with three levels of bureaucracy to launch a day care.

I'm still waiting for a permit. I began my journey in December. Since then, I've set up my entire business plan and pretty much have a waiting list filling up spots. All systems go.

But wait. I can't move forward until TWO levels of government approve my architectural plans. I need so many permits (including a construction permit to add an extension) I literally can't keep pace. My accordian file is filled with documents I still can't figure out their purpose.

It's June now and I can honestly say if the layers of bureaucracy were thinner I'd be open by now and servicing the community. There's a HUGE demand. Put it to you this way. I put up a cute sign on a fence 14 days ago and received 70 voice mails and over 90 calls.

It's been a blast putting people on the list but as of yet I can't do anything because "la ministere" is reviewing my file. Here's the kciker: I'm PRIVATE and SELF-FINANCED through debt..Not only that, my wife is more qualified than most if not all bureaucrats thanks to her 18 years of experience in education and her Masters of Early Childhood Education (from McGill University). Apparently she has to take a back seat to the state. Yeah, they've done a bang up job with education here.

Day care (which is subsidized by the government) falls under some kind of mercurial Kafkaesque government social service, I have to go through them to open - sorta like the mob. Here I am, a private entrepreneurial citizen willing to put up my money to start a business so as to alleviate the pressures on government and taxpayers and I'm still funneled into the system. Moreover, as I've been told repeatedly, "make sure you speak French because you never know what type of bureaucrat is attached to your file."

It's not that they're incompetent, it's just that the whole process is misguided and excessively slow. In the meantime all this nonsense is costing me money.


For what?  Seriously. For what? It's not like they're ensuring the sanctity of optimum world class day cares. Not judging from the scandals and terrible day cares I've heard about and seen.

This folks is what we call communism.

You know, I have more respect for Quebec entrepreneurs than I ever had. To put up with this and still stick around does take a lot of patience. If Quebec had less dependency on the public sector, high taxes and unions and allowed its citizens to perform out of complete free will I'm convinced, given the talent here, there'd be an economic renaissance. One not unlike Ireland in the EU.

Then people wonder why demand outrtips supply. If there's a classic case for textbooks for how government grinds everything to a halt in business this is it.