OTTAWA, ON – Federal spending cuts jeopardize the welfare of adult Canadians with low literacy and undermine Canada’s economic future, say ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation and the Movement for Canadian Literacy, a national group representing provincial and territorial literacy coalitions and learners throughout the country.

As part of the federal government’s spending cuts announced September 25, $17.7 million ($5.8 million in 2006-2007 and $11.9 million in 2007-2008), previously available to literacy organizations through Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD), will be slashed over the next two years. The department’s new mandate is to concentrate on national and federal programs alone. This change jeopardizes the delivery of programs to many learners whose literacy challenges hinder their ability to function fully at home, in the community and in the workplace.

“These cuts will decimate much of the infrastructure built cooperatively by all levels of government and the literacy community over the past decade or so,” says Wendy DesBrisay, Executive Director, Movement for Canadian Literacy (MCL). “The funding supported outreach to potential learners, professional development for the educators, curriculum and materials development, research, partnership development and coordination. Without these supports, the field’s capacity to provide services to learners will be set back years.”

“The cuts translate to thousands upon thousands of Canadian adults with low literacy left with fewer programs to turn to,” says Margaret Eaton, President, ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation. “Closing the door on a significant sector of Canada’s workforce – Statistics Canada says there are nine million adult Canadians struggling with low literacy – ignores the dramatic impact increased literacy skills can have on productivity and economic prosperity.”

Delivery of adult literacy a national, economic priority

Provincial and territorial literacy organizations develop and facilitate the delivery of literacy skills upgrading to adult Canadians. As such, they play a fundamental role in ensuring that our country’s adults are sufficiently prepared to enter, and engage fully in, the workplace and Canada’s economy. “Investing in these organizations is investing in Canada’s workforce and its economic welfare, and as such is a federal responsibility,” says ABC CANADA President Margaret Eaton.

The level of literacy acumen in a workforce has direct links with a country’s economic welfare. A rise of one per cent in literacy scores relative to the international average is associated with an eventual 2.5-per-cent relative rise in labour productivity and a 1.5-per-cent rise in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person, according to Statistics Canada.

“Dismantling a much-needed network of literacy services goes against the very investment Canada should be making in its workforce and in its economy,” adds Eaton.

Beyond children and schools

Adult literacy is one of the key components to ensuring a healthy Canadian economy and society. While much attention and resources are directed, as they should be, to children acquiring literacy skills, this large adult sector cannot be ignored. “For various socio-economic reasons, nine million Canadian adults lack the skills they need to engage productively in society and in the workforce. This is a hard reality – and a responsibility that the federal government cannot ignore,” says MCL’s DesBrisay.

Call for government action

Canada’s national, provincial and territorial literacy coalitions call on the federal government to address the termination of literacy services resulting from the recently announced spending cutbacks.

In a September 8, 2006 statement acknowledging International Literacy Day, The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, said: “The Government of Canada remains committed to working collaboratively with provincial and territorial governments and other learning and literacy stakeholders to promote the importance of literacy and to facilitate the creation of opportunities for Canadians to acquire the literacy and other essential skills they need.”

“In that spirit,” adds DesBrisay, “we trust there is every opportunity for the literacy community to meet with Minister Finley to determine how these literacy programs, severely compromised and in many cases closing altogether, can be salvaged.”

Across the country, the toll of the cuts is severe:

*The Yukon Literacy Coalition programs are jeopardized, including its community literacy development, family literacy programming, learner support and its development of a territory-wide learners network. Local projects in youth literacy, family literacy, workplace literacy, and First Nations literacy are all at risk. Unless additional funds are found, the coalition will close its doors in three to four months;

*The NWT Literacy Council has seen a third of its budget cut, putting its Community Outreach Program on hold because it can no longer afford to travel to remote communities to support literacy workers. Aurora College literacy programs are jeopardized, and its outreach centres in Inuvik and Yellowknife are at risk;

*In British Columbia, Literacy BC will lose support of a number of specific activities, including training and development for literacy practitioners in the field, an electronic conferencing network that keeps practitioners around the province in touch with one another (a key resource for sharing best practices), and a project working with community literacy groups to define and measure outcomes for their work;

*In Alberta, half of Literacy Alberta’s funding is cut, severely compromising its Literacy Help Line, the development and delivery of its Practitioner Certification Program, and its professional development and resources support to practitioners, tutors and learners;

*The Saskatchewan Literacy Network reports it is in immediate jeopardy of closing its doors. This means that supports for the literacy system in Saskatchewan will be eliminated, including practitioner training and conferences, support for research in practice, the Learners’ Speaker Bureau, and a toll-free literacy line with referral service for adult learners;

*In Manitoba, Literacy Partners of Manitoba will lose about 80 per cent of its funding, resulting in the closure of the coalition in the spring of 2007. It will eliminate multiple services to learners in adult and family literacy programs, and to practitioners across the province;

*In Ontario, the development of adult literacy teaching resources, research and professional development will be severely reduced for availability to Aboriginal, Francophone, Deaf and Anglophone adult literacy programs. Family literacy support across the province will be minimal if almost non-existent.

*In Quebec, the Quebec English Literacy Alliance (QELA) in Lachute faces closing, and the operating budget for Regroupement des groupes populaires en alphabétization du Québec (RGPAQ) is effectively cut in half;

*In Nova Scotia, funding for seven major projects has ended, including funds for training for adult learners, and workshops for practitioners to better respond to the needs of learners. The cuts will affect 6,000 Nova Scotians currently in literacy programs as well as 30 per cent of Nova Scotians who do not have a high school diploma;

*The PEI Literacy Alliance is likely to close and with it the successful Summer Tutoring Program for Kids, bursary and scholarship programs for adult learners, workshops for adult educators and leadership for literacy in PEI;

*In Newfoundland and Labrador, the provincial body will only be able to survive on surpluses for about five months. With it will go numerous programs, including its literacy hotline, promotion of family literacy, and its work in initiatives pertaining to workplace learning;

*In Nunavut, all training programs for adult educators and literacy practitioners are gone, most training and support for community-based groups and organizations is gone, all resources to support the delivery of literacy programs to learners are gone, and literacy programming in Nunavut Arctic College is at risk.

ATTENTION MEDIA: Provincial and Territorial Contacts

British Columbia Contact: Jean Rasmussen, Director, Community/ Family Development and Training, Literacy BC, Vancouver, BC: (604) 684-0624; info@literacy.bc.ca

Alberta Contact: Janet Lane, Executive Director, Literacy Alberta, Calgary, AB: (403) 410-6990; jlane@literacyalberta.ca

Saskatchewan Contact: Debbie Griffith, Executive Director, Saskatchewan Literacy Network, Saskatoon, SK: (306) 653-7368; Debbie.griffith@sasktel.net

Manitoba Contact: Lorri Apps, Executive Director, Literacy Partners of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB: (204) 947-5757; apps@mts.net

Ontario Contact: Lesley Brown, Acting Executive Director, Ontario Literacy Coalition, Toronto, ON: (416) 963-5787, ext. 27; Lesley@on.literacy.ca

Quebec Contact: Carolyn Marsh, Project Coordinator, Quebec English Literacy Alliance (QELA), Knowlton, QC: (450) 242-2360; qela@citenet.net

New Brunswick Contact: Jan Greer, Executive Director, The Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB: (506) 457-1227; jangreer@nb.aibn.com

Nova Scotia Contact: Ann Marie Downie, Executive Director, Literacy Nova Scotia, Truro, NS: (902) 897-2444; annmarie.downie@ns.sympatico.ca

Prince Edward Island Contact: Catherine O’Bryan, Executive Director, PEI Literacy Alliance, Charlottetown, PE: (902) 368-3620; peiliteracy.alliance@pei.sympatico.ca

Newfoundland and Labrador Contact: Kimberley Gillard, Executive Director, Literacy Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL: (709) 738-7323; kgillard@literacynl.com

Northwest Territories Contact: Cate Sills, Executive Director, NWT Literacy Council, Yellowknife, NT: (867) 873-9262; csills@nwliteracy.ca

Nunavut Contact: Kim Crockatt, Executive Director, Nunavut Literacy Council, Cambridge Bay, NU: (867) 983-2678; kimcr@qiniq.com

Yukon Contact: Sierra van der Meer, Yukon Literacy Coalition, Whitehorse, YT: (867) 668-6535; sierra@northwestel.net

MEDIA CONFERENCE, Ottawa, ON October 4, 2006 Remarks by Margaret Eaton, President, ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation

ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation is extremely disappointed in the news of cuts across the country to key literacy programs. These cuts - $5.8 million in 2006-07 and $11.9 million in 2007-08—mean that local and regional literacy programs and coalitions will no longer be funded by the federal government. This change undermines the delivery of programs to many learners in communities from sea to sea to sea.

At ABC CANADA, we rely on the provincial coalitions and local groups to help deliver our literacy programs including Family Literacy Day and the Look Under Learn program which connects adult learners with teachers. These federal cuts also endanger our 15 nationwide PGI tournaments which have raised $10 million for adult literacy—money which will not continue to be raised without the investment in infrastructure to support them.

But here is the heart of the problem: Adults with low literacy levels make up 42% of the Canadian population. By this we mean everyone from those who can read and write very little, to those who dropped out of high school before earning their diploma, and those people who have a diploma but who still can’t read and write at a proficient level.

Many of these adults are employed but in jobs with a low literacy requirement. These jobs are becoming harder to find and keep as the technology and the literacy demands of our society increase.

We pay a collective economic price for this persistent dilemma of low literacy. Differences in average literacy skill explain over half of the differences in longterm economic growth in the world’s richest countries, including Canada.

The federal government has said that they are concerned about productivity and they should be. The World Economic Forum in Geneva has, once again, down-graded Canada’s global competitiveness ranking to 16th from 13th last year.

An investment in adult literacy is a direct investment in Canada’s productivity. Statistics Canada research indicates that a rise of one per cent in literacy scores relative to the international average is associated with a 2.5-per-cent rise in productivity and a 1.5-per-cent rise in Gross Domestic Product per person.

The evidence suggests that if Canada found a way to increase literacy levels by 10% over a decade, GDP per capita would rise a staggering 15% - equal to roughly $118 billion in today’s terms.

The economic benefits that would flow from any literacy increase would repay the investment in literacy in short order. This is not the time to be cutting back on the very resources Canadians need. And cutting back now simply exacerbates the low literacy problem and ignores the other costs that fall out from not making such an investment.

When the Federal Government says that their new spending approach “will ensure that the government only approves funds that are actually needed to achieve measurable results in a way that is effective and provides value for money on behalf of Canadians,” we need only point to the benefits in investing in literacy and ask Why? Why to such cuts when the force of nine million Canadians screams need, when there are recognized measurable benefits, and when the value for money is apparent in social terms and economically.

The federal government seems to believe that it is not their responsibility to fund these programs across the country. However, we believe that this country requires a strong national infrastructure for adult literacy as part of the federal government’s commitment to human resources and social development. This commitment would include the proper funding of provincial, territorial and local groups to ensure that adult Canadians have the skills they need.

In a recent PEI Guardian article, the Hon. Peter McKay stated: “The affect on local [literacy] programs will be addressed in the future and we are talking about the near future…”

We would like to meet with the federal government to discuss these plans. The economic future of our country depends upon it.