Human Resources committee  I go back to the national strategy. The first step we see in outlining that strategy is the federal government's entering into provincial and territorial agreements. There have to be discussions so that we can build the vision yet respect individual needs. When we look at the i

Human Resources committee  I found it very disappointing when we were told that advocacy, administration, and levels of bureaucracy needed to be cut out. For the last three years, 60% of the time I was the only staff in my office. We don't believe that advocacy is our major role, because we see ourselves

Human Resources committee  It is a piece of the whole picture of how we try to talk about literacy, because people want to define it as an adult problem. Mr. Loder was the one who made that comment, and I'll defer to him afterwards, if you like. From our perspective, what happens is that formal systems ten

Human Resources committee  There's lot of expertise around the workplace throughout the country, and I think it's important to look to those models and set policies that replicate them across the country. We've recently had people come in from Nova Scotia and Manitoba to talk about their work. Both Nova S

Human Resources committee  Most colleges do run a 1-800 line that will refer people. We refer to it is as one-stop shop. It's for learners to phone in and find out where there are programs in their area or to ask other questions that they might have around literacy and learning. It's also for organization

Human Resources committee  It's a provincial line, and most provincial coalitions have one.

Human Resources committee  With regard to the federal government, I laid most of it out in the recommendations. A very important thing that we need the federal government to support is the national strategy, because there is no system for adult learning in our country. The benefit of the strategy is that w

Human Resources committee  I think it's totally understandable that provinces and territories would do their part. In Newfoundland and Labrador just recently we saw a huge increase in funding to the province in ABE, adult basic education, level one. It's understandable that provinces have to play their rol

Human Resources committee  Could we get a couple of minutes extra because there are two of us?

Human Resources committee  The other thing is that literacy affects all aspects of a worker's life. It doesn't just affect the job. It spills over into health care; our ability to take care of our children, to help them with their homework; our civic participation. All these things are affected by literacy

Human Resources committee  Actually, Ed Brown is here with the Newfoundland and Labrador Workplace/Workforce Learning Committee. We're actually with both of these organizations. Can we co-present?

Human Resources committee  Thank you. That may save time. Literacy Newfoundland and Labrador is a provincial literacy coalition. Our sole purpose is to advance literacy and lifelong learning in the province. Interestingly enough, Literacy Newfoundland and Labrador was just formed this past year as an offi

Human Resources committee  I'm sorry.

Human Resources committee  Yes, exactly, and we do tend to talk fast in this province. I apologize. We didn't have the capacity to translate this, nor do we have the funds to translate it, so I apologize for that. We did bring English copies, which you'll get later. I think it's very timely that we're he

Human Resources committee  I think we'll start with a very quick definition of literacy. When we talk about literacy, people still tend to use the word “illiteracy”. In the literacy field, we don't talk about illiteracy anymore. There are very few people out there who still use an X for their signature, al