Human Resources committee  I'd like to respond to that one, because we get that question a lot. One of the big issues for us is that there's a declining population of children. A much greater portion of our population is the working-age population. Even if we could make every child perfectly literate whe

Human Resources committee  I believe there have been some very good steps that have been taken, including some money—the labour market agreements that were alluded to—that was downloaded to the provinces. That money has been going out, in some cases in partnerships with the private sector, for workplace li

Human Resources committee  Yes, I think we could be using employment insurance in a much more creative way. One of the things we've been talking to the provincial government in Ontario about, and the federal government, is work-sharing programs. So if someone is laid off but is only, say, doing three days

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, and thank you, Sherry, for that wonderful lead-in to my follow-up comments on literacy. We have some recommendations that will build on those fabulous points. My name is Margaret Eaton, as mentioned. I'm president of ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation, and it's

Finance committee  Oh, I see. Statistics Canada, in partnership with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, did this study in 2003. They tested 5,000 Canadians and 5,000 people in western nations. I think another six or seven nations participated in the survey.

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  We're speaking strictly about reading and writing, but what we found about literacy is that in fact you can lose literacy skills; someone who actually has a grade 12 diploma but is involved in a job like long-distance trucking and isn't using his literacy skills could actually lo

Finance committee  I think that's a great idea. There's nothing like hearing someone who's gone through an adult learning program speak about their personal story to really move people and have them understand the issue. How do I make that offer to the federal cabinet?

Finance committee  All right.

Finance committee  Yes. It's a standard set out by an international organization that ranks literacy levels around the world. They've determined that level three is what is required for people to get along in the western world. It's on a scale of one to five. The people at levels one and two in Can

Finance committee  Thank you so much. You're absolutely right, and it would be remiss of me not to explain that these coalitions really are the backbone of literacy programs in the country. As you mentioned, they are generally the first point of referral for someone seeking help, often through ou

Finance committee  The provinces have done a fantastic job of actually improving test scores in literacy and numeracy across the board, and we are seeing increases in those students who are graduating from high school in terms of their literacy and numeracy. In a lot of cases, people actually end

Finance committee  Yes, now it is. We are encouraged by the fact that the education system is actually improving across the country, but the bigger block of Canadians, demographically, are the adult group. And if we are really going to see encouragement in literacy levels we have to address the is

Finance committee  We have a wonderful program called Look Under LEARN, where ABC actually holds the rights to the word “learn” in the yellow pages. Adults who are interested in upgrading their skills can look in the yellow pages under “learn” and access a provincial or territorial coalition, which