Honourable senators, I want to thank Senator Bellemare for her persistence and determination. She is taking a patient and methodical approach to this long-term effort to educate the Senate and Canada about literacy and essential skills, to encourage senators to participate in and add to the debate, and lastly, to introduce two complementary bills, namely Bill S-254, which we are debating now, and Bill S-256, which I will also talk about later today.

In the Senate, it is common to see small steps gradually, and sometimes even imperceptibly, lead to major public policy changes. Bill S-254, to establish a national promotion of essential skills learning week, is one such example.

I support this bill because a discussion about essential skills and their development is crucial. A national week of events and discussions across the country is even more important because, as several senators explained during Senator Bellemare’s inquiry on this subject, there are currently 13 parallel provincial and territorial conversations going on instead of one national conversation. This week must be instituted at the national level to raise awareness among more Canadians about the importance of acquiring and improving skills throughout their lives. It would further encourage organizations to serve as ambassadors for training in various sectors by promoting these skills, and it would foster exchanges between different stakeholders to build support for the development of essential workforce skills. Studies show that focusing on people and their training is the best way to invest in the economy. I support Bill S-254 in particular, because it ties in with Bill S-256, the national framework for essential workforce skills bill.

I believe these two bills should be passed together for one simple reason. While Bill S-256 creates a formal structure to establish a national framework in this area, Bill S-254 will provide a more informal space for dialogue, discussion and promotion regarding the themes that will be addressed by the framework. Often these kinds of activities involve students, teachers, researchers, employers, unions, community organizations and so on.

It would be great if the first promotion of essential skills learning week in October 2019 could coincide with the beginning of the discussions and consultations proposed under Bill S-256. As the World Bank Group president has reminded us, human capital does not materialize on its own. It must be nurtured by the state. Thank you.

Gladly.

I want to mention that we are talking about Senator Bellemare’s bill here. In many communities, Literacy Week helped promote essential skills and the importance of helping people who are having a harder time finding a job on the labour market get the skills they need. I will get into that later when I talk about the framework. Having been involved with the Council of Adult Literacy Education for Manitoba, I have to say that an increasing number of federally funded initiatives have been cut over the past 10 years. The provinces and the federal government, with the Council of Ministers of Education, implemented some good initiatives, but they have been cut. I think that it is important that we start talking about this issue again, because it is essential to the economy.

I agree with what you’re saying.