Void getting larger
Almost 50 per cent of Atlantic Canadians do not have sufficient literacy and essential skills
Dear Premier Ball, Premier Gallant, Premier MacLauchlan and Premier McNeil:
I am writing to you on behalf of the Atlantic Partnership for Literacy and Essential Skills, a collaboration of the P.E.l. Literacy Alliance, Literacy Nova Scotia and the Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick, to address the need to re-instate adequate, predictable, and stable funding for literacy and essential skills development in Atlantic Canada.
Almost 50 per cent of Atlantic Canadians do not have the literacy and essential skills required to work and thrive in a knowledge-based, digital society. There has never been a more important time to support adult and family literacy programs and yet, Literacy Newfoundland and Labrador has already closed its doors, and the impending closure of the P.E.I.I. Literacy Alliance leaves just Literacy Nova Scotia and the Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick to fill a void that is getting larger.
For over 25 years, our organizations have provided literacy services, programs and supports to Atlantic Canadians. Until three years ago, the federal government supported our work through adequate, predictable, and stable funding, administered by the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills. This funding helped our organizations run in an administratively sound and accountable manner and enabled us to carry out ongoing activities in support of our mandates and the needs of the literacy and essential skills field. In 2014, the federal government cut funding and dismantled a once vibrant and effective network of provincial, territorial and national literacy organizations. To date, only eight of the original15 remain in operation, most of them by a thread.
In the Atlantic region, we have played an active role in addressing the need for federal support. In February 2015, we responded to the call for project proposals from the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES). We are still engaged in negotiations on the proposed project, over two years later, even though in 2015/2016 ESDC was underspent on literacy and essential skills projects by over $13 million.
After more than two years of lobbying and meeting with federal officials, we were advised in August by Minister Patricia Hajdu’s office, that funding for core programs from the federal government would not be reinstated. The lapse in response from the federal government, coupled with the lack of long term, stable financial support has decidedly reduced our capacity to ensure the success of projects, carry out our core literacy services and address emerging needs in our communities.
To simply cut funding off to literacy programs doesn’t make economic or moral sense, but that is exactly what is happening. This is in sharp contrast to Liberal statements made just prior to the 2015 federal election which clearly outlined that, “Lifelong learning and literacy must become a Canadawide priority to both enhance our standard of living and economic competitiveness in the years ahead.”
While the federal government is interested in providing project-based funding for adult literacy, it’s not enough. Project-based funding pays for valuable short-term initiatives, but it does not pay for the background work that keeps an organization healthy and able to meet the existing and emerging literacy needs of our communities. Without adequate, predictable, and stable funding, our organizational capacity continues to erode and our ability to leverage funds for important project work is significantly diminished.
We continue to receive some support from our provincial governments, our communities, and local businesses. However, we are facing complex challenges, which require stronger partnerships between all sectors and all levels of government. A better alignment of federal and provincial policy objectives in critical areas including labour force development is necessary to build a strong economy in which education and training are vital to the long-term future of our region.
We need your support on this issue to ensure that all stakeholders, including the federal government, are doing their part. Literacy skills are essential and the foundation for all learning. Populations with high literacy skills are more likely to live in safe communities, enjoy better health outcomes and earn higher incomes, in other words, the kind of place we all want Atlantic Canada to be.