Officials in Ottawa launched Canada’s third annual Financial Literacy Month (FLM) on Friday.
At a special event hosted by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) joined the FCAC and other organizations to raise awareness and promote financial literacy across generations.
Featuring a keynote address by author, speaker and financial planner David Chilton and a panel discussion with representatives from various financial literacy networks across the country, the launch event in Ottawa kicks off a month of activities designed to help raise Canadians’ awareness of the importance of increased financial literacy in Canada.
Under the theme “Financial Literacy across Generations,” this year’s FLM puts the focus on learning or brushing up on the basics of money management at any age and will include events for Canadians of all ages.
“Ensuring that Canadians, from children to retirees, are equipped with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to make responsible financial decisions is key to maintaining a strong national economy,” said Kevin Sorenson, Minister of State (Finance), who will be taking part in a variety of financial literacy events in November.
Throughout the month, Canadians and organizations alike are encouraged to either host or take part in an activity designed to increase their own or someone else’s financial skills. Canadians will be able to find out more about the financial literacy activities and events happening across the country through the FLM calendar of events on the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) website.
Canadians can also follow @FCACan or #FLM2013 on Twitter to get regular updates and to take part in the conversation.
Organizations can still send submissions for the FLM calendar by visiting www.itpaystoknow.gc.ca/flm.
To draw on young talent during FLM, FCAC is once again challenging Canadian youth aged 13 to 19 to submit a 30-second to 2-minute video explaining “How talking about money with…helped me…,” as part of its FLM video contest. Complete video contest rules and regulations are available on FCAC’s website.
Earlier this week, IIROC launched an online Glossary of Financial Certifications to help Canadians make sense of the wide range of certifications in use. IIROC is also partnering with Better Business Bureau to distribute 40,000 bookmarks throughout the country to inform the public about this new service.