Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am very pleased to be here today and to welcome you and the entire committee to our beautiful home of Saint John, New Brunswick.
I received my doctorate in education from the University of New Brunswick in 2014. I continue an active research program there as an honorary research associate. I'm also the executive director of Elementary Literacy, or Littératie au primaire. We are a provincial non-profit organization advancing the importance of early reading success among New Brunswick children. We are currently serving over 200 elementary schools across New Brunswick, in both English and French, and over 1,200 students annually.
To begin today, I would like to start by highlighting four key principles that I would urge the committee to follow in developing this important strategy.
Number one is the use of evidence to inform your work. I have to say that I fear the term “evidence-based” has become a little sexy and has lost some of its meaning. I would urge us to remember its meaning. Take literacy as an example. Federally, funds earmarked for literacy have traditionally been earmarked toward adult literacy programs and organizations, even though I would argue that funding levels have never been as high as they need to be. The research evidence, however, clearly demonstrates that the prevention of reading difficulties is best followed by remediating difficulties early, when children are in school, such as we are doing at Elementary Literacy. Preventative early intervention approaches have been proven to be the most effective ways to increase literacy in a population. The evidence is clear, yet policy—or perhaps tradition—has not kept up.
Number two is the use of experimentation. Our experience at Elementary Literacy when we were established in 2009 was that national and international research was emerging that showed volunteer reading mentors could significantly support children's reading development, but we needed to experiment with that evidence here in New Brunswick, as every jurisdiction has unique characteristics.
In New Brunswick, we are Canada's only bilingual province, and we needed to create French and English programs. Roughly half of the population in New Brunswick lives in rural settings. We also have areas with extreme concentrations of child poverty, such as here in Saint John.
Through experimentation, local evidence is collected, refinements are made, and things are made to work.
My third point is something that we have worked really hard on here in Saint John and that Donna talked about: coordinating and leveraging existing infrastructure, resources, and knowledge.
Finally, my fourth point is around the need to be innovative. We need to use evidence in innovative ways to explore directions—in this case, for reducing poverty. Nobel laureate and economist James Heckman has concluded widely and repeatedly that early childhood development heavily influences the health, economic, and social outcomes of individuals and society at large. He has shown time and time again that there are great economic gains to be had by investing in early childhood development, particularly among low-income children and families.
This brings me to the specific project that I would like to bring here to Saint John as part of a national poverty strategy. Learning Together is an innovative, evidence-based prototype of early learning service delivery. Learning Together aims to establish three early learning demonstration sites in three priority areas of Saint John, all of which have high concentrations of child poverty. The three centres will work together as one fully integrated branch of a single strategy for programming, implementation, and research. One of these centres already exists, and I am very pleased to know that you are visiting the Saint John Early Learning Centre this afternoon. Two new centres are also being proposed.
These centres are in response to the evidence, which is very clear, that children are oriented toward success or failure at kindergarten entry. This is based on the experiences they've had in the early years before school. For children living in poverty, the odds of reaching kindergarten ready to learn and to benefit from the curriculum and their teacher are very low. In fact, the 2014 Canadian Institute for Health Information report concluded that while 26% of Canadian children demonstrated developmental problems or risk profiles at kindergarten entry, more than 40% of children living in low-income areas exhibit risk at kindergarten entry and less than 10% of children from high-income neighbourhoods exhibit any level of risk.
The link between income and school readiness in Canada is very strong, but it does not have to be. Early learning research has shown that children who attend high-quality early learning facilities exhibit greater rates of school readiness, language, and literacy success once in school, and ultimately greater rates of social mobility, enabling them to break the cycle of poverty for them and their families.
Learning Together would fill a significant gap in service for low-income children and families. Child care in Canada is still treated as a market commodity. Parents pay very dearly for child care. Families in poverty simply cannot afford to do this and thus often lack the access.
A significant piece of Learning Together is the research program that I would manage should our model be adopted, with the primary aim of integrating early learning research, practice, and policy to enhance the skills and school readiness of low-income children. Importantly, through this work, we will also address the knowledge and competencies both of educators and of parents. Parents are our children's first and most influential teachers. We cannot forget that.
I want to leave with you this. There is an opioid crisis happening in our country. It is devastating communities and families and killing Canadians. Dr. Maté, a retired palliative care doctor, recently penned an op-ed for CBC News entitled “Fixing fentanyl means treating trauma that creates addicts”. In his piece, he speaks to the influence of early childhood in shaping the brain, noting that “childhood adversity is at the core of the emotional patterns and psychological dynamics that drive addiction”. That Learning Together, through prevention, has the potential of impacting future addicts is not an exaggeration.
I thank you for your time and for considering this work. Excuse my trembling voice. Thank you.