Latest from Doug
The value of literacy
The natural resources that surround us in Stikine hold great opportunities to provide for our communities.
There are resources like wild salmon that sustain us physically, culturally and economically and will continue to do so if we can manage stocks properly, ensure habitat is maintained and keep our rivers and lakes clean.
Then there are other resources, such as minerals, where extraction is depletive in nature and requires constant exploration to find new deposits in order for employment opportunities to continue beyond the 10 or 20-year life span of a mine.
Resource-based jobs are important in our region, and training is crucial. The college system is a community-based and cost-effective means to deliver programming. The government has been slow to understand this, as demonstrated by the underfunded capital and operating needs of colleges across the province.
Northwest Community College is a prime example, with trades funding declining in the past year and the award-winning School of Exploration and Mining unable to secure multi-year support.
But community-based adult literacy is an even more ignored component of the essential training strategy for rural areas.
One of the government’s great goals was to make the province the “most literate jurisdiction on the continent.” One recent demonstration that this goal is no longer a concern of this government was the cutting of adult and family regional literacy coordinators two years ago. All while more than one million working age adults living in B.C. have inadequate literacy levels for full participation and success in a modern society.
Many working- age adults in our communities do not have adequate literacy levels to benefit from the opportunities that result from the natural resources in our communities’ backyards.
Greater support for community-based adult literacy organizations is essential. A provincial government that really wants local people to benefit from local job opportunities would recognize that. Let’s build a family-friendly future in Stikine.