The Task Force resumed its public consultations in Toronto Tuesday, prior to heading to Ottawa for sessions on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Youth Challenge Fund (http://youthchallengefund.org/), which works to improve opportunities for Toronto's young people in the city’s 13 priority neighbourhoods, was represented by Pamela Grant. She observed that youth have a lack of opportunities to enhance their financial literacy; their needs vary widely and a single approach won’t work; and that education needs to be integrated into existing youth programs.
Similar thoughts were expressed by Fazal Khan of SkyRocketKids Foundation (http://skyrocketkids.org/), who observed that, “many children view money as a piece of plastic in mom or dad’s wallet that gets them stuff.” SkyRocketKids’ MoneyBox teaches children financial literacy and the distinctions among save, spend, give and grow.
Questions arising from prior submissions – that suggested that credit cards are too easy to obtain and that high interest rate cards are being aggressively marketed by some schools – were posed to Visa Canada’s Tim Wilson. He agreed that “consumers need to be educated before receiving credit cards,” and described Visa’s Choices & Decisions financial literacy program, now taught in more than 5,000 secondary schools.
The Financial Planning Standard Council’s Cary List, in a thought-provoking presentation, told the Task Force that, “managing money is a life skill as important as language, reading and arithmetic.”
Robin Walsh of the Canadian Bankers Association recommended the establishment of a single web portal on financial literacy for all financial institutions and organizations, hosted at the website of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/).
19 groups and individuals appeared Tuesday and over 200 submissions have been received to date; clearly, interest in the Task Force’s work is growing as our work progresses.
Don Stewart
Chair of the Task Force on Financial Literacy
