|
||||||||||||
Home > Facts & Figures > Literacy in BC | Why Literacy Matters | Useful Resources 
New poll finds 90% of Canadians believe improving literacy is key to competitive economy. Council of the Federation Announces Literacy Award Winners for 2010 Conference Board of Canada report shows that improving literacy can save lives in the workplace.
Data Angel Report: Addressing Canada's Literacy Challenge, A Cost-Benefit Analysis (PDF) New TD Bank Report: Helping Newcomers Unlock Their Potential (PDF) Listen to Barbara Adler's poem, "Florence"
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Protecting Canada’s standard of living depends on literacy Ottawa-January 6, 2009—A campaign to improve literacy among Canadians is the best and most cost-effective way to boost the country’s lagging productivity and maintain employment, says a report from a leading statistical research firm. The report estimates an investment of $6.4 billion in adult literacy over 10 years would result in impressive dividends—between 80% and 250% annual return. This represents a substantially greater return than realized on other government investments in health, education, employment or social programs. “Business and the public sector would get the most bang for their buck by supporting a national push to improve our ability to use the written word,” said Scott Murray of DataAngel Policy Research Incorporated. “Without higher literacy, employment and wages are bound to fall as Canada’s firms struggle to compete in a fiercely competitive global economy.” Literacy has played a pivotal role in providing Canadians with one of the highest standards of living in the world. However, half of adult Canadians do not possess the literacy skills needed to take full advantage of opportunities present in today’s global economy. Profound changes in the global economy are placing intense pressure on Canadian firms. Several studies have linked higher literacy levels to helping maintain Canadian employment and wages at current levels. Raising adult literacy to the required level needed to compete would cost an estimated $6.4 billion dollars over a 10-year period. Assuming that the economy is able to absorb the new literacy skill as it is created, this investment would yield an estimated 251% annual return. A more conservative estimate, one that assumes that the Canadian economy could absorb the new literacy skill at the rate observed over the past 50 years, suggests that this investment would yield an annual rate of return of 83% over a 25-year period. Both these estimates exclude the additional health, education and social benefits that would be expected from higher literacy rates. “This report shows that upgrading adult literacy could result in the greatest productivity boost to our economy since sewer and water were introduced in our cities over 100 years ago,” said Scott Murray. “Literacy is a far better investment than many others being considered by our federal and provincial governments.” Contact: T. Scott Murray, DataAngel Policy Research Inc. -30- |
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
