In the wake of a new national Commission on Financial Literacy, Canadian Business magazine mandated COMPAS to ask members of the business panel to pinpoint what average Canadians should know and which institutions should be ensuring that Canadians know it.
Above all, Canadians should be taught the value of

• Paying off credit card debt quickly;
• Higher education including technical education,
• RSPs as longterm planning vehicles;
• Saving money and avoiding avoidable expenditures; and
• Owning a family home.

At the bottom of the list of things for Canadians to know is stock market-related, investment information. Members of the business panel have only moderate enthusiasm for teaching the average Canadian about asset allocation strategy and price-earnings ratios for traded stock.

Who should be responsible for teaching Canadians? Above all, schools. Not governments or post-secondary institutions. Nor should Canadians count on better regulation of the kind of financial information that they receive when investing.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

View / Download complete poll in PDF