New Quebec daycare spots will be doled out fairly: province

Some 18,000 new public daycare spots will be distributed across Quebec including regions suffering from a shortage of subsidized child care, the province said.

Quebec Family Minister Michelle Courchesne said the new spots will benefit handicapped children and those from poor or immigrant families.

About 9500 of the 18,000 will be reserved for the greater Montreal area including the island's suburbs.

About a third of the new spots will be created in workplaces or educational centres, Courchesne said at a news conference in Quebec City Tuesday.

About 575 spots will be reserved for children from First Nations communities, she said.

The Quebec Liberal government originally announced it would create 18,000 new spots in July 2007.

Quebec offers subsidized daycare services to residents who pay about $7 a day for child care.

The new spots will increase Quebec's annual daycare costs to about $2 billion a year.