Finance Committee on Sept. 26th, 2012

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

She said to me, “So, Mr. Rajotte, how do I educate my mom and dad to manage their money better?” It really struck me.

Mr. Rogers, your organization does a lot of work with adults, which shows that it's very different in terms of how you actually approach this issue. But I do want to address a point, because one reason for this bill is that there are a lot of excellent organizations doing outstanding work, but there's an awful lot of overlap. If you have this overlap, what would be your advice to the financial literacy leader in terms of, say, three or four organizations doing work with adult financial literacy? Do you allow them so that you have some options, or do you actually sit them in the same room together and ask if we can come up with one standard curriculum, one standard practice, and one best format?

Maybe we'll have Mr. Fair and Mr. Rogers start on that.

[Adam Fair]

Sure. Yes, I think bringing the stakeholders doing this work, who are the knowledge and content experts, together in the same room to have a conversation about where our values and our missions overlap and how we can work together to do something—and Gary and everyone has mentioned this—is larger than any one organization specifically....

I would caution you about that group being able to create the perfect curriculum for newcomers, let's say, but they can create some guidelines, some best practices, some tools, and some methodologies that then can be shared and will be used on a case-by-case basis as they're appropriate. As well, newcomers themselves are not a homogenous group.

Bringing a group physically together and helping it to work through best practices, through methodologies for learning what works and what doesn't, makes a lot of sense.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Mr. Rogers.

[Mack Rogers]

I agree with Adam, but I'd also like to say that many of the groups find their own niche. It may look like there's a lot of overlap, but they actually do find their own little specific field that's important.

As the many educators in the room can attest to, every classroom is different and every learner is different, from the youngest child to the oldest learner, and each group is very good at finding that way to get through, that way to break through. I think it's important that we come together to find the best practices, yes, but we also have to allow the teachers in the room and the people writing the programs to do what they do best.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

You two can have a very brief comment and then we'll finish up.

[Gary Rabbior]

I was just going to say that right now, quite honestly, there's so much to do that even if we overlapped we probably wouldn't come close to covering the scale of the job that needs to be done.

The other thing is that sometimes there's healthy competition. Competition isn't necessarily a bad thing. It can help you to try to be better. We don't compete in the normal way, but if we're both working in the same jurisdictions, we challenge each other to do a better job.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Mr. Ashworth.

[Stephen Ashworth]

In my opinion, there is an overlap. As I mentioned, we're outstripped five to one in demand. Gary and I have done work together in cross-pollinating ideas and sharing, because we deal with the same audience as the educators.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much for that.

Thank you for being with us here today. I thank you and your organizations for all your efforts in this area.

Colleagues, we will suspend for a couple of minutes and then go to future business in camera.

Thanks to all of you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]