Literacy Programming in Manitoba
Economists have estimated that low literacy levels cost the Canadian economy billions of dollars annually (Gulati 2013; McCracken and Murray 2010; Sharpe et al. 2009). Those with low literacy skills suffer poorer health and add disproportionately to the costs of the health care system (Rootman and Ronson 2005). Low literacy drives up social assistance costs – Judith Maxwell and Tetyana Teplova (2007:37) have found that 65 per cent of social assistance recipients in Canada have low literacy skills. There is a strong correlation between low literacy levels and incarceration – 70 per cent of inmates entering federal custody have less than Grade 8 literacy levels (Office of the Correctional Investigator 2012).
