Movement for Canadian Literacy

Basic Skills and the Bottom Line:

Why Is Bill C-12 An Issue for Canada's Adult Literacy Community?

The 1989 Statistics Canada study, "Literacy Skills Used in Daily Activities (LSUDA) shows that Canadian adults with low literacy levels are more likely to be unemployed or out of the labour force than adults with moderate to high literacy levels. This supports a similar finding from the recent International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), produced by the Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development in collaboration with Statistics Canada. Because unemployment and low literacy are linked, any changes in Canada's insurance system for unemployed workers will have a greater than average impact on adults with low levels of literacy.

LSUDA and IALS also clearly demonstrate that Canadian adults with low literacy levels are likely to have significantly lower incomes from wages and salaries than adults with moderate to high levels of literacy. Therefore, any reductions in the amount of employment insurance benefits will have a greater than average impact on them.

Finally, there's widespread recognition that literacy skills are the foundation for future learning. Adults with low literacy levels need to improve their basic skills before they can benefit from more job-specific training opportunities. At the same time, IALS makes it clear that adults with low literacy have a lower rate of participation in adult education and training than those with higher literacy skills. Any reduction in access to quality literacy programming will have a negative impact on literacy levels in Canada, as well as negative impacts on the lives of adults who struggle with literacy.