Federal Budget Favours Financial Literacy

In this week's budget by Finance Minister, Joe Oliver, promising news supporting the Financial Literacy Strategy was announced.

A National Strategy, for Canadians of all ages, will be released shortly that builds on this initial step.  This Strategy will set out goals and priorities to strengthen the financial literacy of Canadians throughout their lives.

Canada's Financial Literacy Leader, Jane Rooney, celebrated her one year of the job (April 15th) and has acted swiftly and collaboratively, striking a National Steering Committee on Financial Literacy (that I'm a proud member of), representing Canadians from all walks of life, across our vast country.

Another key role for the Financial Literacy Leader will be to coordinate and engage the private, public and not-for-profit sectors to work towards common financial literacy goals.  As an early example of collaboration, the Government has secured a commitment from Canada's banks to establish a five-year Financial Literacy Partnership Fund of $10 million to provide grants to eligible community organizations for projects that work to improve the financial literacy capabilities of Canadians.

"When hard working Canadians have the skills, knowledge and confidence to make informed financial choices, their personal economic circumstances will benefit, and the economy as a whole will benefit as well."

- The Honourable Kevin Sorenson, Minister of State (Finance)