Volume 6, Number 3 - July 2000

A Meeting with the Minister

A Message from Linda Mitchell, Executive Director, Literacy BC

On May 3, Paul Gallagher, President of Literacy BC, and I met with the new Minister of Advanced Education, Training and Technology (MAETT), the Honourable Graeme Bowbrick.

We took this opportunity to familiarize Mr. Bowbrick with the literacy field in B.C. and to discuss with him a number of the issues and challenges that the field encounters. In particular we urged Mr. Bowbrick to become the leader within government by addressing these issues at the inter-ministerial level. We encouraged him to work collaboratively with the many ministries who have a real stake in the future of learning opportunities in B.C., since the effectiveness of literacy learning has a direct impact on many ministerial portfolios.

We thanked the Minister for the new initiatives his ministry has implemented for adult learners in B.C., specifically increased access to literacy/ABE programming. However, we pointed out that MAETT has not augmented its investment in the Adult Literacy Cost-Shared Program for several years. We also pointed out that many other provinces and territories have provided significant increases since the inception of the federal/provincial cost shared program. We urged the Minister to increase his ministry’s financial commitment to it in BC.