About twenty hours, that is the average total time that will be devoted by Quebec schools to training in economic education on the consumption of a student throughout his primary and secondary education.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
Admittedly, this is very little to allow future adults to understand TFSAs, GICs, LIRAs, FCPs, ETFs, IPCs, RRSPs, RESPs, Relevé 1, VRSPs, T4s, GST, QST and others — not to mention the more than 440 other notions of the “main terms of the financial world” contained in the glossary intended for the general public of the Autorité des marchés financiers. We haven’t even touched on the proper use of a credit card, the purchase or lease of a motor vehicle, the residential lease, home ownership, or the insurance world.
Why is this such an important issue?
Before the age of 25, many young people will have already made dozens of financial decisions that could have a major impact on the course of the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, too many of them lack the tools and knowledge to make informed and responsible choices.
In Quebec, partly because of our Christian roots, we have always had difficulty talking to each other about money. A probable symptom of this historical phenomenon and of the lack of attention paid by the school to the subject, 328,000 Quebecers have found themselves in a situation of insolvency over the past 10 years.
On average over the past decade, nearly a third of insolvency cases in the country affected Quebecers (32.1%), while our demographic weight was on average 22.8% for the same period.
The resulting social costs are major and deplorable, both for the individuals and families affected and for Quebec society. A higher threshold of financial literacy alone will not solve this issue, but it will make a tangible difference.
Two possible solutions
At a time when the Quebec Ministry of Education is considering “updating training programs”, the time has come to have a serious reflection on the major issues of financial literacy from which Quebec suffers. Above all, it is time to realize that financial literacy is not just a matter of the rich.
Not all parents have the tools and knowledge to adequately address this topic at home. This crucial responsibility falls to Quebec schools from the outset.
Moreover, one of the important values that unite us as Quebecers is this ideal of equal opportunity. However, access to an adequate understanding of the dynamics of consumption and financial management is inseparable from this ideal.
Beyond prioritizing financial education and giving it more importance than the equivalent of a few days of training in a social studies course in Secondary V, we have to admit that marketing work is needed to make the world of financial services and taxation more attractive and accessible. It is not with an endless list of indigestible acronyms that we will be able to compete against the attraction of the speculative adventures offered by cryptocurrencies and same stockswhich too often constitute an unfortunate gateway for the new generation in the financial sector.
Our governments and companies in the financial sector absolutely must take up this challenge, especially at a time when the supply of financial products is becoming considerably more complex. Tightening the down payment thresholds for a mortgage loan or increasing the minimum monthly payment on a credit card balance are timid steps in the right direction, but these relevant measures do nothing to increase the level of financial literacy of population. Learning it at school is not secondary.