Mr. Speaker, yesterday the government ended funding for the Canadian Council on Learning. The centre began in 2004 under a Liberal government after reports that Canada ranked last in investment for early childhood education in the OECD, that 55% of Canadians were functionally illiterate and that 42%, nine million Canadians, performed below international standards.
The centre's mandate is to measure and track new learning trends, and to develop new tools to improve learning. The provinces have found the CCL's work to be very important. The Secretary-General of the OECD wrote to the Prime Minister to congratulate him on the organization's work.
At a time when experts and 87% of Canadians agree that a highly skilled and educated workforce is critical to Canada's productivity and competition in the global economy, the work of the CCL will end. It is true that the CCL made us look in the mirror and see our warts but it offered solutions as well.
I guess this is yet another example of a government that does not wish to hear the truth and thinks investments in research on critical issues are useless.