FAIR Canada submitted its comment letter to the Task Force on Financial Literacy on April 30, 2010, outlining a detailed, seven-point Action Plan. FAIR Canada believes that the Action Plan will allow the Financial Literacy Strategy to make a real, lasting impact on the financial well-being of all Canadians.

1) Creating and funding a permanent institutional structure through which a national Financial Literacy Strategy (also referred to as the “Strategy”) can be coordinated and implemented. Without a stable funding commitment from different levels of government, no strategy can be properly implemented, and the efficacy of such a strategy cannot be monitored. With a permanent institution, governments, regulators and educators have a permanent resource that can coordinate the Strategy and provide a long-term base from which to create future initiatives. This requires clear and committed political leadership at all levels of government.

2) Mandatory financial literacy education in all Canadian high schools to allow the next generation of Canadian workers and investors to participate in financial markets with a basic level of financial literacy.

3) Testing by government bodies (including both regulators and educators) of the effectiveness of current and future adult financial literacy initiatives.

4) Encouraging a long-term shift of responsibility from consumers to the financially sophisticated market participants who manufacture and sell financial products. This encompasses not only responsibility for failures in the financial markets, but crucially the responsibility to educate and inform investors about products and the application of financial literacy to real-life financial and investment issues.

5) Leveraging existing public resources, and encouraging regulation, to create a better “architecture of choice” for investors. In these ever increasing complex financial decisions, we must make it easier for consumers to make wise financial choices.

6) Deploying the Financial Literacy Strategy and the tools and education developed through adaption to new technology and new methods of communication.

7) Opposing, directly and forcefully, misinformation, pressure tactics, and institutional barriers to financial literacy and good financial decision-making that are frequently adopted by the financial industry. Regulation of financial marketing and advertising must require that both risks and benefits be presented in a fair and balanced way to investors.

FAIR Canada looks forward to providing more details about its Action Plan at the May 12 Public Consultation hearing of the Task Force.

Click here to view the entire FAIR Canada submission.