Human Resources committee  I'd like to address the issue of the impact of adult literacy on children. If adults and parents create a literacy-rich environment, it affects the literacy development of children. If adults are learning to read, it's going to encourage their own children to read. Even in workplace programs, in my own research across the country, I've seen that adults want to upgrade to be a role model for their children.

Human Resources committee  We've been asking this ourselves, those of us who've been in workplace literacy for the last twenty years. It has always been difficult to get employers to the table, even when you show the investments. One thing we would suggest--and this came out of the round tables--is to look at the 1% training levy in Quebec as a way of providing a pool of funds.

Human Resources committee  I think it's really important that we don't focus just on workplace literacy and literacy for jobs. We've got to look at the bigger picture. Also, I would like to say that even within the whole issue of workplace literacy, if we look at a lot of the programs over the last fifteen years--the ones especially that labour has been involved in--the workplace was a venue and it was a place where people could focus on the skills for their jobs, but also the skills to help with their family and their community as well.

Human Resources committee  I think the transfer of funds is really important, because in Leslie Childs' and my own experience we have seen a need for workplace literacy programs. Some of the money from those funds that was going to be transferred to the provinces would go to workplace literacy programs. Right now, we don't have enough support for them, so this money is particularly important for developing a support system for workplace literacy, for example, in Ontario.

Human Resources committee  I would just say that for the provincial coalitions I think this is really an employability issue, because provincial coalitions also develop materials and offer professional development to their members across provinces, which actually improves the quality and keeps up the professionalism of the field in terms of adult learners and programs.

Human Resources committee  Good morning. At the same time that we applaud the federal government's investment in the future work of NALD, we are dismayed and perplexed by the recent government cuts, especially the $17.7 million to the National Office of Literacy and Learning funded by HRSDC. We would really like to know what evidence was used to decide that the services and programs that were cut were not value-for-money.