As I mentioned earlier, a number of things flow from working cooperatively on training and sharing data between provinces, the federal government and stakeholders in education and learning, in the broadest sense of the term.
As has been previously mentioned, even the information we have in Canada at the moment is very fragmented. For example, we do not know exactly how many students are in any given system, whether it be a college or even a university, at any given time. In a variety of fields, we do not know how many graduates there are. How can we meet the needs of the labour market in Canada if we do not even know how many people graduate in each field each year?
This database must be set up as a cooperative federal-provincial venture. Once that has been done, we can set objectives. As I mentioned previously, the objectives do not necessarily have to be quantitative—and I agree with Calvin Fraser about that—but they have to be clear and they have to involve accountability. A province would not be responsible to Canada as a whole, but Canadians as a whole would be responsible to other Canadians. That is the very broad sense in which I see accountability.
With a significant information base, with objectives, targets and reference points shared by the provinces, as is the case with member states of the European Union, pilot projects could be established. For example, the federal government could support pilot workplace projects in the provinces. The projects could be operated by the stakeholders and supported by the provinces. The goal would be to encourage employers to do much more in the area of training and learning, especially for their workers' literacy, numeracy and basic skills. That is not being done at the moment. Canada really is below the OECD average in this respect.
In a real sense, poverty is linked to basic skills like literacy and numeracy. But, even there, a way must be found to measure the quality of the involvement. The evaluation must be based on standards that reflect the views of each province and the federal government.
There is a principle, but there are also ways to tie activities to each of the learning objectives. I feel the same about early childhood education. In Canada, one child in four enters school without the necessary skill. There are a number of examples like that.