Human Resources committee  Don't let them, okay? I think the federal government should reconsider and make sure, with the provinces and territories, that the foundation, which has been built, is not lost. Otherwise it's very wasteful and it will have to be built up again--but it probably won't be by the people who did it; we're tired.

Human Resources committee  The answer is they won't be able to. There is no slack to pick up what's being dropped. I could say more, but are we out of time?

Human Resources committee  I'd have to say no. We've been concerned over the past year and a half because we saw that there was a movement within the federal government, even before this government was in power--it's part of a movement in society--to focus more on competitiveness. We feel that the most vulnerable are increasingly being left behind.

Human Resources committee  I'll tell you about Saskatchewan to start. I have some responses from most provinces. What we have heard from Saskatchewan is that after seventeen years of moving literacy forward in Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Literacy Network will likely be forced to close its doors. In another place--I'm sorry, I really didn't have a place, but I brought a list of the things that will go down the tubes in Saskatchewan.

Human Resources committee  I asked--

Human Resources committee  It was in family literacy. I think that would be training practitioners to deliver specialized family literacy. Another is research in practice, which is a term in our field that means we're learning to do research--practitioners are learning to examine their own work as they're doing it.

Human Resources committee  It's true that the funding from all levels of government has been too low. This committee in 2003 recommended, I believe they said, as a downpayment, increasing the budget of the National Literacy Secretariat immediately to $50 million a year, realizing that the federal government will not provide literacy training to people.

Human Resources committee  In the past, the direct federal funding for literacy through the National Literacy Secretariat was something like $30 million a year. This cut is 17.7% over two years, but we're also hearing that we can't get a clear picture of what the new budget is compared to the old one because other things have been added in.

Human Resources committee  Well, two things come to mind. First of all, as a society, can we afford to abandon people and have them not making a contribution? I don't think so, but even more specifically, the children who are at risk of having literacy problems in the future have parents. A lot of the literacy delivery that's happening now is called family literacy.

Human Resources committee  That's right. Another item that came up in different presentations in terms of employability is community economic development and other kinds of community development. Sometimes people who are less skilled can find a meaningful place in community organizations and community economic projects that don't rule them out because they're less skilled.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the committee for the invitation to speak to you today. Excuse my voice; I hope it holds out. I believe you have a copy of MCL's brief on literacy and employability. In a minute I'll highlight some of the points from that brief, but before I do, it would be a betrayal of the literacy community and the millions of Canadians who struggle with literacy challenges if I didn't speak to the implications of the $7.7 million in cuts to federal literacy programming announced earlier this week.