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Research data services--support offerings which enable and improve data-intensive research--have garnered sustained attention from library research support service providers for nearly two decades. Because of the critical role they play in supporting research on college and university campuses across the country, particularly at research intensive universities, research data services have more recently become a central area of concern for an increased number of stakeholders, including offices of research, campus IT, and other units involved in the research enterprise. Despite the widespread recognition of their importance, however, the development of research data services has been largely ad hoc, lacking cohesive cross-campus collaborations or strategic frameworks. As a result, many data-related services are siloed, difficult to locate, and available informally or by word of mouth, leaving researchers and administrators confused about the availability of data research support offerings, where they are located, and who can access them. The resulting opacity is a major barrier to better coordinating these offerings to minimize inefficiencies while continuing to offer services that are ready to adapt to researchers' evolving support needs. Ithaka S+R has been following trends in research data services for several years as part of their research into the support needs associated with data-intensive research methodologies. In 2020, Ithaka S+R conducted a pilot project to inventory research data support services in the United States. This study revealed broad patterns and trends in the distribution and provision of research data services at US higher education institutions and marked an important first step toward understanding the quality, relevance, and capacity of university-based research data services. Since the publication of the 2020 inventory, foundations and the federal governments in both the US and Canada have increased requirements around data management and sharing. As a result, the need for universities to develop an efficient infrastructure of research data services is an even more urgent strategic priority now than it was in 2020. Yet even as the pressure on universities has grown, provisioning such services remains a challenge. While many universities have made substantial investments in research data services and are likely to continue to make further investments, obstacles such as decentralization and inefficiency, insufficient staffing, lack of technical expertise, and ambiguity about the needs of researchers continue to limit the impact of these investments. In light of these persistent challenges, and in the interest of providing up-to-date data to inform university decision making, Ithaka S+R revisited the inventory and expanded the scope to include Canadian universities. The new inventory findings are part of a larger collaboration with 29 research universities focused on coordinating research data services offered across campus and aligning them with the evolving needs of their research communities. These findings are based on a comprehensive review of data services offered at a representative sample of 120 US institutions (including R1, R2, and liberal arts colleges), and eight institutional members of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL).

Universities, colleges, and polytechnics are key public institutions that play an important role in Canadian society. From places of learning, research and discovery to economic hubs and community pillars, postsecondary institutions are at the forefront of innovation and problem-solving for the complex issues the country faces. However, years of inadequate public funding have increased precarity in the academic workforce, reducing research capacity, while leading to increasing student fees that is making education less accessible and affordable for many. According to the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), Canadian universities and colleges are tasked with preserving, sharing, and advancing knowledge. This crucial mission can only be achieved if both the federal and provincial governments ensure that science, research and post-secondary education and training are properly funded, affordable, and accessible. CAUT recommends three key areas where federal leadership and investments are needed: (1) Research and science; (2) Affordable education and training; and (3) Address inequities in education.

Post-secondary education (PSE) and research play a critical role in advancing the economic, social, cultural, and political development of Canada. The federal government supports public PSE in Canada through myriad mechanisms such as tax measures, grants and loans to students, research funding, and the Canada Social Transfer (CST). This report was submitted to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance with a number of recommendations: (1) Provide transparent, predictable, and adequate federal cash funding to the provinces and territories in support of public post-secondary education, through a National Post-Secondary Education Transfer, discrete from the Canada Social Transfer, with agreed conditions established through federal legislation or multilateral or bilateral agreements; (2) Work with the provinces and territories on a plan to improve access, affordability, and quality of public post-secondary education in Canada; (3) Make permanent the Post-Secondary Strategic Investment Fund to maintain and expand green campus infrastructure, including much needed student housing; (4) Establish a federal post-secondary education secretariat or branch within the federal government to facilitate intergovernmental collaboration and coordinate initiatives such as research and science, student assistance, data, and innovation; and (5) Create a National Advisory Council on Post-Secondary Education and Training.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life for students, teachers and everyone connected to public schools. The crisis has also exposed the fragilities of the economy in meeting the basic needs of all and highlighted the importance of the public sector, of community, and of care work. Schools are key public spaces of community and care. They must be protected and made more resilient both during and coming out of this public health crisis. In this unique, urgent context, British Columbia teachers are pleased to present their views on priorities for the 2021 provincial budget to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) represents 43,000 teachers and associated professionals in public schools across British Columbia. This year, the brief to the Committee is focused on two categories of recommendation: those aimed at underlying, long-term issues in the public education system, and those arising from the intertwined public health and economic crises, labelled (COVID-19). In these challenging times, British Columbia has an opportunity to make the necessary and pressing improvements to public education that will re-orient public education funding to fully reflect the needs of students, classrooms, and schools as community hubs. Good will on the part of everyone in the system will surely allow for the establishment of a new equilibrium, where schools and students across the province have what they need to flourish and thrive.

Through teaching, training, research and service to the community, Canada's universities and colleges are essential to creating a more democratic and just society, driving the economy, and preparing for the future. Canadians need a strong commitment from their federal government to protect and preserve the public post-secondary education system. This report provides six recommendations for the federal government: (1) Exclude public post-secondary institutions from the "Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act" (CCAA); (2) Create a national post-secondary education transfer; (3) Reinvest in basic science and expand equity in research; (4) Improve affordability for students; (5) Reform copyright laws; and (6) Create a federal post-secondary education secretariat. [For the 2022 Submission, see ED626050.]

Budget 2019 brings welcome investments for students. It does not address however, key challenges facing Canada's colleges and universities, resulting from stagnant government funding for core operating costs. Budget 2019 commitments to making post-secondary more affordable average around $650 million per year for five years and include investments in training for working adults, Indigenous students, graduate students, student loan recipients, with additional measures for those with disabilities, and supports for apprenticeships. Like previous Liberal budgets, Budget 2019 invests in an ambitious work-integrated learning (WIL) for students promising 84,000 new placements by 2023. The budget also committed funding for a new federal drug agency to develop a national formulary, as well as new funding for medicines for rare diseases. Budget 2019 built on previous Liberal budgets, investing more on the basic research agenda, student affordability, and Indigenous education. These are welcome moves; however, Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) will be looking to see commitments to a bold vision to ensure the sustainability of Canada's post-secondary education system. Ongoing challenges of affordability, accessibility and quality need to be addressed to ensure the economic, social and cultural success of our country.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) represents 72,000 academic staff at universities and colleges across the country. CAUT strives for fair working conditions, compensation and benefits to foster quality teaching and innovative research while advancing equity and human rights within our profession. Many of the institutions where members work contract with the federal government to deliver educational services, such as research and training. As post-secondary education is an employment sector with high union density, it is known that the existence of a collective agreement does not automatically protect workers from employers seeking to lower labour standards. The government's commitment to implement a modern fair wages policy is welcome. It supports the government's broader decent work agenda and will assist in ensuring that workers who do business with the federal government have fair wages and working conditions. This submission responds to the following questions: (1) Who should be covered by the policy?; (2) What should the policy require?; and (3) How should the policy be enforced? Through a fair wage policy, the federal government can leverage public spending to support important socioeconomic goals, including improved labour conditions and greater equality of income.

This report describes private colleges serving adults which since 1936 have been required to register with the provincial government of British Columbia, Canada or, since 1993, with a regulatory body created by the government. The sector has always included career colleges, but registration was expanded temporarily in the 1990s to include all types of private institutions and English as a second language schools. The report's focus is on the sector, although a few individual institutions are described to illustrate its diverse character. The development of the Private Post-Secondary Education Commission (1992-2003) and the Private Career Training Institutions Agency (2004 to present) is traced. The number of private career colleges fluctuated around 70 institutions from 1940 into the 1960s. By the mid-seventies, the number reached 100. It was not until the 1980s that noteworthy changes began. The introduction of federal training contracts helped propel the number of colleges from 165 in 1980 to over 500 a decade later. Following adverse publicity about a few problematic institutions, the province moved the regulatory function out of the government bureaucracy in 1993. Voluntary accreditation was introduced at this time, with registration shifting towards consumer protection for prepaid tuition rather than educational quality assurance. In 1997, the provincial government said that private career college students would soon no longer be eligible for student financial aid unless their institution was accredited, with the federal government following suit soon after with respect to students receiving unemployment insurance benefits. The creation of the Private Career Training Institutions Agency in 1992 led to the complete deregulation of English language schools, the introduction of other forms of oversight for private academic institutions, and industry self-regulation for the remaining career colleges. The sector has attracted controversy, with widely varying views about the quality of individual institutions. Default rates for former students repaying student loans have been at least double those of public institutions. Surveys reveal that students have been relatively satisfied with their educational experiences. The majority of private career colleges have been small, enrolling fewer than 200 students annually. Some consolidation has occurred recently in the sector as corporations acquire and merge schools. These corporations are increasingly international in orientation, seeking both vertical and horizontal integration in various aspects of the industry. [For "Post-Baccalaureate Programs. Made in B.C.: A History of Postsecondary Education in British Columbia. Volume 7," see ED540825.]

This report describes programs that require a bachelor's degree, not necessarily in the same field, for entry to the program. They are equivalent to at least one semester of full-time study, with at least some of the instruction delivered face-to-face in British Columbia, Canada. Graduate programs, professional programs such as law and medicine, and post-baccalaureate diploma programs in public, not-for profit, and for-profit institutions are all within its scope. The paper touches on an extensive and representative sample of programs and institutions, but does not provide a complete inventory. The focus is on how programs were established, not on everything that has happened subsequently. Although a few graduate programs existed prior to 1945, postsecondary education in BC until then consisted mainly of undergraduate teaching institutions and various apprenticeship and articling opportunities. With the growth of research funding from the federal government, graduate education began expanding in the 1950s and, by the 1960s, doctoral education had become common. Professional programs had a more varied evolution, with some moving from training provided by the profession into the university and with many raising their entry qualifications to a bachelor's degree. The most recent post-baccalaureate developments have concerned post-degree certificates and diplomas. BC Public Institutions are appended. [For "Agencies and Organizations. Made in B.C.: A History of Postsecondary Education in British Columbia. Volume 6," see ED536089.]

This report traces the development of the workplace apprenticeship system and college-based pre-apprenticeship training in Canada's most western province, British Columbia. The Canadian system is mildly distinctive in an international context and within Canada, British Columbia is increasingly distinctive. Federal government influence has been significant, even though education is a provincial jurisdiction. Government involvement in apprenticeship began in the 1930s, but it was not until the 1960s that federal funding spurred the establishment of a system of public vocational and technical institutions in British Columbia. Tensions in administering trades training developed in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to the establishment of three successive organizations to oversee the system. The report begins chronologically but concludes with short discussions of a series of topics such as completion rates and curriculum development. Some institutions, private as well as public, are briefly described. Some registration statistics itemizing trades are presented but individual trades are beyond the paper's scope. The report synthesizes a wide variety of sources to provide an overview of a poorly studied and often fragmented aspect of postsecondary education. Four appendixes present: (1) Challenges Enumerated by the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, 2004; (2) Registration Statistics, 1935-2010; (3) Fulltime Equivalent Enrolment, Public Institutions, 1990-2010; and (4) Trades List 2011. A bibliography is included. (Contains 3 footnotes.) [For Volume 4, see ED524626.]

This report presents the results of the formative evaluation of the Adult Learning, Literacy and Essential Skills Program (ALLESP). Data collection related to this evaluation took place between November 2008 and May 2009. The evaluation resulted in the following four recommendations: (1) It is recommended that Program objectives and activities should be revised to more accurately reflect the direction and scope of the Program and to ensure outcomes are achievable and measurable; (2) It is recommended that the Program continue its efforts to communicate, support and consult with stakeholders and funding applicants in order to ensure openness and transparency with regards to its priority setting and decision-making; (3) It is recommended that OLES (Office of Literacy and Essential Skill) continue with its commitment to improve its data collection systems so that sufficient and complete information is collected for monitoring and reporting purposes. In conjunction, it is recommended that proposal and reporting forms be updated to better reflect the CSGC (Common System for Grants and Contributions) codes and categories, thereby easing the burden on Program officers. Finally, recent revisions to the Program's reporting templates will require ongoing communication and support for funding recipients; and (4) It is recommended that the Program investigate various ways of supporting the transfer of the knowledge regarding funded projects and their results. Appendices include: (1) Program Logic Model; and (2) Evaluation Issues and Questions Matrix. (Contains 13 tables, 2 figures and 47 footnotes.)

A summative evaluation of the Foreign Credential Recognition Program (FCRP) funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) was conducted during the spring, summer and fall of 2008. The main objective of the evaluation was to measure the relevance, impacts, and cost-effectiveness of the program. Given the timing of the evaluation in relation to program implementation (2004-05), the measurement of impacts and success focused mainly on the intended immediate and medium-term outcomes of the program. Whereas, the evaluation assessed only "progress" towards intended longer-term outcomes due to the challenges in achieving these outcomes within the four year time frame against which the evaluation was conducted. Overall, the Evaluation found the Program to be relevant, cost-effective, and successful in meeting immediate outcomes while progressing well towards targeted long-term outcomes. However, there is relatively slower progress made towards intermediate outcomes beyond the initial investments in the engineering and physician occupations. Program relevance was assessed by examining the level of consistency between the program, the government and departmental priorities as well as relevance to stakeholder needs. Evaluation results show that there is a continued need for the program. Key findings and conclusions in this report underscore the important role the Government of Canada plays, through the FCR Program, in coordinating, facilitating and supporting partners and key stakeholders. Appendices include: (1) List of Targeted Occupations; (2) FCRP Funding and Number of Projects by Occupation; (3) FCRP Logic Model; and (4) International FCR Practices. (Contains 7 tables and 70 footnotes.)

At the heart of progressivism is the belief that government--not big government, or small government, but effective government--has a critical role to play in ensuring the well being of its citizens. Public spending serves an important function in pursuing economic growth objectives while ensuring that gains are widely distributed to promote broad-based increases in living standards. But governments' relative fiscal positions, how much they spend, and the composition of that spending is likely to make a difference in achieving these objectives. Member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development--an international organization consisting primarily of developed, free-market economies--vary significantly in (1) their relative fiscal positions, or deficits and surpluses; (2) their amount of public spending; and (3) how they allocate spending across different categories to reflect priorities. This descriptive study examines how OECD countries have addressed the current economic situation through their fiscal balance sheets, and then goes on to consider similarities and differences in public spending across OECD countries through the prism of economic and social objectives. Countries are compared according to three relative measures of government spending: spending as a share of GDP, spending per capita, and spending by category as a percentage of total government expenditure.

Whether to adopt national standards and tests has long been a subject of lively debate in the United States. With 47 states now participating in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and a commitment from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to allocate hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to the development of common tests, the country is better positioned than ever before to take the leap. Still, many questions and pitfalls remain. This report looks beyond America's borders for guidance on how we might best make a transition to an acceptable, workable form of national standards and tests. An examination of the systems and histories of ten countries--Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, and South Korea--led to six key insights, described herein. Lessons from Germany are particularly salient, as that federal nation recently embarked on a strategy similar to the Common Core State Standards Initiative. As this report illustrates, many high-performing countries with national education standards have education systems that are even more decentralized in their operation than ours, at least in terms of the autonomy enjoyed by school-level educators. This and other lessons are outlined in these pages in an effort to shed light upon how the United States might also tread a path toward national standards, even national testing, without sacrificing our fealty to local control, properly conceived. The six key insights are: (1) It's not true that national standards portend loss of local control; (2) An independent, quasi-governmental institution is needed to oversee the development of national standards and assessment and produce reports for the nation; (3) The federal government should encourage and provide resources for the standards-setting process but shouldn't meddle inappropriately; (4) We ought first to develop coherent, focused, rigorous standards for English, math, and science; (5) National assessments (including open-ended questions) should be administered every other calendar year in grades 4, 8, and 12; (6) Hold students, teachers and schools accountable for performance. Appended are country profiles and supplementary tables. (Contains 9 tables and 7 footnotes.) [Foreword by Chester E. Finn, Jr., Michael J. Petrilli, and Amber M. Winkler.]

The Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF) is an active member of various coalitions and networks working to enhance the well-being of Canadian children and youth, including the National Alliance for Children and Youth and Campaign 2000. Among CTF's priorities is to support teachers and teachers' organizations as strong advocates for social justice, with a particular focus on issues related to child poverty. Child poverty is a tragic and shameful fact of life in a nation as wealthy as Canada. The child poverty rate remains at 1989 levels, the year of the all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. According to Campaign 2000's 2008 report card on child and family poverty, "Canada has enjoyed more than a decade of strong economic growth yet child poverty is essentially the same, based on the latest data available, as it was in 1989... As Canada heads into a period of economic uncertainty, the most strategic decision the federal government could make would be to lower the poverty rate." The Canadian Teachers' Federation joins the call for political commitment to a national poverty reduction strategy for Canada. Parents should be able to provide an adequate living standard for their children--working together, governments can ensure that is possible. Strategies and policy recommendations that could have a positive impact on inequitable educational opportunities linked to family socio-economic status include: (1) political commitment to a national poverty reduction strategy for Canada; (2) an increased minimum wage; (3) an expansion of eligibility for Employment Insurance; (4) a major investment in social housing; (5) improved accessibility and affordability of post-secondary education and training; (6) the inclusion of child and youth services as part of federal/provincial/territorial agreements concerning immigrants and refugees; and (7) adequate funding for First Nation's child welfare agencies to deliver in-home support and prevention services to First Nation's children and their families. Specific strategies for ensuring all children are better provided for include: (1) a universal child care system providing dedicated funding for high quality care and early intervention and school-readiness initiatives for all children; (2) restrictions on the growth of for-profit corporate child care; and (3) support for school boards and relevant community agencies in their attempts to coordinate health, recreation, and social services at school sites. A list of sources and further reading is included.

Nearly one out of five Canadian residents was born outside of Canada and approximately two-thirds of Canada's population growth results from net international migration. Only Australia, where immigrants represent 24% of the population, has a greater percentage of immigrants than Canada (18%). Immigration is a major factor in Canada's economic growth, but successful transitions into the Canadian labour market remain elusive for many immigrants, whose skills, knowledge and experience are too frequently under-utilized. This paper presents several strategies for removing obstacles to the successful integration of immigrants into labour markets. (Contains 3 figures.)

Immigrants form an important and growing part of the Canadian population. Governments recognize the need to help new immigrants integrate into Canadian society by learning to speak either English or French, and therefore offer or support Language training programs. The federal Government, through the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, runs the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada Program (LINC). Three Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec), provide their own programs in lieu of LINC, and Quebec supports only the learning of French. Provinces and territories also have programs to provide access to English (or French) as Second Language Courses. Despite all these programs, figures from the 2003 "International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey" (IALSS) suggest that language training efforts have so far been insufficient and that immigrants, even when relatively well-educated, continue to face greater literacy challenges than do native-born Canadians. This literature review looks at the segment of the immigrant population who are not literate in their native language and who may require some combination of ESL and literacy education, or "ESL literacy" education. The literature reviewed includes discussions on definitions of literacy and who is an ESL literacy learner. It addresses issues such as the training and working conditions of teachers, instructional strategies, assessment, and policy. A bibliography is included.

This report presents the 2008 National Drug Control Strategy of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The overarching goal of the President's Strategy is to reduce drug use in America through a balanced approach that focuses on stopping use before it starts, healing America's drug users, and disrupting the market for illegal drugs. Chapter 1 addresses the prevention priority, stopping drug use before it starts, and details efforts to expand and amplify the cultural shift away from drug use, especially among young people. Chapter 2 details efforts to implement the treatment priority, intervening and healing those who have already succumbed to drug use and addiction. Finally, Chapter 3 focuses on U.S. initiatives to disrupt the market for illicit drugs--our supply reduction effort. (Contains 25 figures.)

There was a major change in Canadian student aid in the late 1990s, due largely to a package of measures adopted by the Government Canada as part of its "Canada Opportunities Strategy". At the time, what aroused the most comment was the creation in 1998 of the $2.5 billion Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation (Foundation). But while the Foundation was certainly a welcome--if controversial--addition to the country's stock of need-based aid, its creation did not herald the start of a new focus on need-based aid. Quite the contrary, in fact: the creation of the Foundation was actually the last major investment in need-based aid made by any Canadian government for nearly seven years. In retrospect, the most significant measure of the late 1990s was contained not the flashy 1998 federal budget, but rather in the almost unheralded budget of 1996. In that budget, the monthly education tax credit amount for full-time students was increased from $60 per month to $80 per month. Though it hardly set the world on fire, this measure fundamentally altered the nature of student aid in Canada. The next year the monthly amount was increased--in stages--from $80 per month to $200 per month and part-time students became eligible for a $60 per month credit. These amounts were later doubled in the federal Liberals' pre-election mini-budget of October 2000, and then hiked again in 2006 when the new Conservative government created a $60 per month tax credit for "textbooks" which was an addition to the existing monthly amount in all but name. Ancillary fees were added to the tuition fee tax credit. Student loan interest became subject to a tax credit as well. Provinces not to be outdone got into the tax credit act, too. Most matched the increases in federal tax credits--some (notably Alberta) increased them way beyond anything the federal government did. Some have-not provinces even began trying to use education tax credits as a way to stem the loss of their youth population. What all of this signaled was a decreased desire on the part of governments to use need-based student assistance to distribute aid to those who need it the most. Instead, governments began finding non-need-based methods of providing supports: tax credits, tuition freezes--anything which did not use need as a criterion--became the preferred method of distributing money. Indeed, governments went so far as to begin actively seeking to distribute money to people who--so far from being needy--were actually well enough off to save substantial sums of money for their children's education. The Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), begun in 1998, almost immediately became a $400-million per year program. Recently, provinces have begun copying this, too--most notably, Quebec, which has begun matching federal contributions to the program on a 1:2 basis. The metamorphosis from a need-based system of aid to a predominantly non-need-based system of aid in Canada did not happen instantly. It has been the slow, inexorable result of an accretion of government decisions at both the federal and provincial levels. Ideology has not played a part--governments of both the left and right alike have plunged with abandon into non-need-based projects. The purpose of this report is to shed light on the how this situation evolved, on a province-by-province basis. In Chapter 2, the paper takes data from 1993-94 to 2003-04 (the last year for which good data is available) to show how the mix of available aid changed in each province over that decade, and how these changes helped to offset the rises in tuition which occurred over that time. Though there are some broad themes which emerge from this examination, the situation was not the same in all provinces and the individual sections of this chapter should help the reader understand the nuances in situations across the country. Although good data on student assistance is not available past 2004, it is possible to track the broad outline changes in student aid just by examining various budget documents and tracking government announcements dealing with student financial assistance. This paper does this in Chapter 3. In the final chapter, the paper examines the cumulative effect of these changes on student assistance and outlines who has benefited the most from the recent changes. Targeted Need-Based Student Assistance is appended. A bibliography is included. (Contains 16 tables, 21 figures and 22 footnotes.)

This publication reviews and summarizes the findings of the major benchmark studies and reports in adult literacy--beginning with the University of Texas' Adult Performance Level Study of 1977 and continuing through the 2006 NAAL survey results, A First Look at the Literacy of America's Adults in the 21st Century.

This paper describes a looming crisis in Canadian student financial assistance. It begins by summarizing the known evidence with respect to student financial assistance. It notes that many studies have emphasized the central importance of grants targeted to low-income students as a means to expand of access to post-secondary education, but that the same studies have tended to show that subsidies for higher income students have little or no effect. The paper then looks at four sets of threats which are currently converging on the student aid system and especially its system of aid for low-income students. (Contains 8 footnotes, 4 figures and 1 table. A bibliography is included.) [This document was published by the Educational Policy Institute (EPI).]

According to Statistics Canada, as many as 8 million Canadians do not have the literacy skills necessary to prosper in a knowledge-based society and economy. For most of these Canadians, the challenge is not simply in "decoding" text, but in "understanding and working with" it. The demands of the knowledge-based society are escalating faster than ever before, and the definition of the minimum literacy skills required to meet the challenges of modern life is evolving to match. In recent years, leaders from government, business, labour, and the NGO community have publicly acknowledged the extent and impact of Canada's literacy challenge and the need for action. The provincial and territorial Premiers (Council of the Federation), Ministers of Education and Labour Market Ministers have also identified this as a priority area for action. The strong and widespread support for action on literacy makes it clear that literacy is an issue not only for those who are marginalized, but for all Canadians, and that the time is right for federal government leadership. In this brief, the Movement for Canadian Literacy (MCL) outlines the necessity for action, addresses challenges, and provides the Finance Committee with concrete recommendations. It's goal, and it hopes the Committee's goal as well, is to ensure that Canada and all Canadians are equipped to face the challenges of a complex world. To help reach that goal, governments must make literacy a policy and funding priority. Canada cannot truly move forward as a nation if it leaves almost half of the Canadian population behind. (Contains 18 footnotes.)

This volume illustrates how Canadian federal investment is advancing key measures of success in building research capacity at Ontario universities. Program descriptions illustrate federal investment in university-based research at 18 institutions of higher education in Ontario. A look at these programs shows that government-funded research is developing Canada's knowledge workforce and supporting the training of students who will transfer their skills and knowledge to the private sector. Government-funded research is expanding technological opportunities for firms to develop new products and processes, and it supports the creation of dynamic clusters of firms and knowledge flows essential to effective innovation. (SLD)

This report is a summary of discussions that took place at the Rural Voluntary Sector Leaders' Dialogue, entitled "Innovation and Skills Development in the Rural Voluntary Sector in Nova Scotia", held in Truro, Nova Scotia on September 20, 2002. Many of the discussions took place in brainstorming sessions at which no limits were placed on the participants. In order to present a true report of the free-ranging discussions, recommendations made by participants that fall outside federal jurisdiction are also included. The Dialogue process helps the federal government to understand local and regional priorities, and provides rural, remote and northern citizens with an opportunity to influence federal government policies, programs and services that affect them. The goal of the Rural Voluntary Sector Leaders' Dialogue was to provide a forum for the exchange of information, experience and ideas on the role of government in best supporting the revitalization of the rural voluntary sector. The expected outcome was sound advice and a framework for an action strategy in support of innovation and skills development in the rural voluntary sector in Nova Scotia. The issues raised during the discussions relating to the rural priority areas are: (A) access to federal government programs and services; (B) access to financial resources for rural business and community development; (C) opportunities, programs and services for rural youth; (D) community capacity-building, leadership and skills development; (E) infrastructure for community development; (F) knowledge-based economy/society and use of the technology; (G) strengthen economic diversification; (H) access to health care; (I) access to education; (J) partnerships for rural community development; and (K) promote rural Canada.