Thank you.
Mr. Lauzon, members of the committee, thank you for having me here this morning.
I represent the Quebec English Literacy Alliance, founded in 1997. The Quebec English Literacy Alliance is a coalition of English literacy service providers. I represent 300 active tutors and teachers from all corners of Quebec.
We know that almost 800 adult Quebeckers have less than a grade nine education, yet we have only approximately 800 students enrolled in literacy classes, either in the formal sector or with one-to-one tutoring in the non-formal sector. Far fewer adults participate in classes than those who need these services.
We know that one in five Quebeckers has difficulty reading and has few basic skills or strategies for decoding and working with text. Many parents at a level one cannot determine the correct dosage of medicine to administer to a sick child, read food safety tips, or read baby formula directions. 15% of Canadians have difficulty reading and have few basic skills. This is considered level one.
Unfortunately, parents with low literacy skills have difficulty helping their children with their homework. The literacy skills of parents directly affect the family's income, health, and overall quality of life. In my opinion, the most serious repercussion of having parents with low literacy skills is that their children are at far greater risk of having low literacy skills themselves, so the literacy problem self-perpetuates.
I was asked to share my thoughts on what could be done to improve the situation for the Quebec English Literacy Alliance. For years there has been an ongoing issue of core funding versus project funding. We know that project funding does not work. This was one of the conclusions of the report that the previous Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Claudette Bradshaw, concluded after her pan-Canadian round table consultations in 2005. Groups spend much time and energy trying to come up with new and innovative projects every year, when in reality they are already the experts. We all know what to do and how to do it, but we have been restricted by red tape, unrealistic guidelines, and timelines that are precarious at best. Each year we risk closing our doors, and we also risk losing quality resource people with years of experience each and every time we have to wait for funding, which we are not even sure we will get.
Another important point that needs to be mentioned is how a change of minister affects funding. Every time there is a new minister in charge of this dossier in the federal government, whether it is because of a change of government or just because of a switch in responsibilities, all grants come to a screeching halt and the process starts all over.
Funding was supposed to be confirmed and sent out last August 2006. But with the change in policy, obviously that delayed the issuing of funds. We then had a new minister who was unfamiliar with the English literacy situation in Quebec—a delay during the learning curve. Now we have yet another new minister, and again, another learning curve. Who knows when and if the funding will go through. So because of bureaucracy, many groups do not know whether they will exist or not.
But most important, we also risk losing students who will not come back if those doors are even temporarily closed.
The Quebec English Literacy Alliance needs financial stability in order to do what it does best: be the foundation for literacy efforts and initiatives in Quebec. Our initiatives are illiteracy prevention, family literacy, training of literacy trainers, and recruitment of individuals with weak literacy skills.
Core funding would allow the Quebec English Literacy Alliance to provide ongoing and much needed support to the learners most needing our services. 49% of our population needs literacy classes, yet there is no long-term plan in place to get them into training to acquire the nine essential skills defined by the HRSDC's research in 2005.
I must speak to you of how devastating the federal budget cuts have been to the Quebec English literacy community. We are a small community with huge needs, as we are spread far and wide in our province. It is all well, indeed, to say that literacy funding needs to get to the grassroots. But how would that happen in our English literacy community without a central organization to help recruit those who need those services? Many of our tutors and teachers are retiring. Who will be there to train new practitioners? Being a literacy teacher and tutor takes special training that is not available just anywhere. Some of the members of our organization have worked for a number of years to produce new materials to be used by our students. Such important work must continue.
A recent United Nations study showed that a 1% increase in adult literacy levels would generate a 1.5% permanent increase in the GDP per capita. In Canada, this would amount to about $18 billion a year that could be reinvested. Investing in the Quebec English Literacy Alliance is investing in Canada's workforce and its economic welfare, and as such it is a federal responsibility.
Economically this is an absolute emergency. Our Canadian demographic is aging, and in the future we will need every Canadian to be literate to fill the jobs of the next generation. A long-term financial commitment from our federal government and sustainable funding are vital if we are to make a significant dent in the low literacy statistics. Coalition core funding is an absolute must if we are to beat this serious problem together.
Thank you.