The focus on financial literacy took an upswing in 2014 when Canada’s first financial literacy leader, Jane Rooney, met with stakeholders and held consultations across the country as part of efforts to develop a national strategy.
The national strategy for financial literacy aims to mobilize the public, private and non-profit sectors to strengthen Canadians’ financial literacy and help them achieve several goals: managing money and debt wisely; planning and saving for the future; and preventing and protecting against fraud and financial abuse.
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Actions under the second goal — planning and saving for the future — are aimed at boosting Canadians’ awareness and understanding of existing government and workplace benefits such as savings programs they may be eligible for.
“The strategy is now live and publicly available,” says Rooney.
“The next phase is about implementation. We’re working towards identifying the very specific demographic groups. I’m meeting with organizations that have delivery channels [and] programs that reach Canadians directly and raising awareness about these three goals.”
Rooney’s own organization, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, has delivered financial workshops for its employees. The workshops don’t provide advice. Instead, they provide information and then the call to action is for employees to seek out a financial professional, says Rooney, who’s encouraging her federal government counterparts to offer programs as well.
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