Responsibility for education lies with the provincial governments in Canada. In 1987, the Southham Literacy survey (Selman & Dampier, 1991, p.170) found that 5 million Canadians were functionally low literate. These reports were widely publicized. At this time a popular radio host, Peter Gzwoski, took up the cause of literacy and embarked on consciousness raising and fundraising activities across Canada. By the International Year of Literacy in 1990, literacy had become a public issue. Another influence on literacy in Canada has been non- governmental organizations such as The National Adult Literacy Data Base (NALD), the New Brunswick Coalition of Literacy, Frontier College, and Laubach Literacy. Many of these groups have concerns about literacy for those on the margins. The children in our study were struggling with school literacy. Low literacy would be detrimental to their future success as fully participating members of our society.
Provincial Governments also became concerned about the literacy of their citizens. In New Brunswick, a series of reports were commissioned to study the state of literacy. As a result, a Minister of State for Literacy was appointed in the province. A seriousness of purpose is evident as the New Brunswick Department of Education assesses literacy and publishes the results in a series of Report Cards. Another worrying literacy issue is the gender differences in reading. Larger studies such as International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) (Kirsch, Jones, Murray & Tujniman, 1995) and the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) (OECD, 2001) reported on the gender issues in literacy. Education officials in the province of New Brunswick and other areas of Canada were concerned about this gender gap.