I received a newsletter from Revenu Quebec a few weeks ago that piqued my curiosity as a financial professional and educator: learning materials for grade 11 students and teachers. After reading over the material, I looked over the official curriculum for the financial education course in Quebec and, was curious to know the state of mandatory financial education is in Canada. Here’s what I found.
Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan are the only provinces (to my knowledge) that have mandatory personal finance components. The Quebec course is required for grade 11 students, Saskatchewan has just launched a mandatory grade 10 course, and Ontario has financial literacy sprinkled throughout various classes from grades 4-12. As of 2025, Ontario will impose a financial literacy test in grade 10, as a unit of the math course, requiring a passing grade of 70% or higher to graduate. Since the topics of this test have not yet been officially released, I won’t be focusing on them in my curricular analysis. However, the teacher in me is skeptical about a high-stakes test, as a component of one course, which will address the wide field that is personal finance.
Broadly speaking, the QC and SK curricula span the following:
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The financial literacy contents address concerns that are immediately relevant to students leaving or about to leave high school: how to think through major purchase, what does earning an income look like, why savings and investments are important, and the role of responsible borrowing. A highlight for me from the Quebec curriculum is that stresses the legal protections for consumers and workers, and how the income tax system works. Saskatchewan excels in explicitly discussing investment products, understanding risk tolerance, and how that all fits into an investment portfolio. Shame these ministries didn’t talk to each other when designing their courses!
What I appreciate about each province’s approaches to personal finance is that the topics are realities or near realities for the students. Sure, learning how mortgage payments are calculated is great, but most students are not graduating high school and buying homes. What many teenagers and young adults do take up is summer/seasonal employment, where they earn income, and then spend said income – how to manage these new benefits and responsibilities in a way that aligns with their values is critical and timely.
The biggest oversight in both cases is leaving out the math behind the time value of money and the erosion of purchasing power by inflation. Registered savings and investing are mentioned as high-level topics, though being able to calculate the effects of stuffing cash under a mattress, saving in a high interest savings account, or investing in balanced portfolio is powerful. Understanding these tradeoffs is fundamental to setting financial goals over multiple horizons and attaining them.
Yes, obviously as a financial professional and math teacher I would love to see more calculations, though with good reason. When I taught the lower stream grade 11 math course, I pushed my students to calculate inflation adjusted returns, on comparing lump sum vs periodic savings over time, and on computing credit card interest costs. We also used price information, sourced from their parents/families and current values, to calculate inflation on these items. The math was challenging, yet the students met the higher standards and appreciated the exercise. I was fortunate to have had the flexibility to teach beyond the scope of the math course and I recognize the challenges in mandating more advanced mathematics in a broad financial education course.
Fortunately, the education ministries for Quebec, Ontario, and Saskatchewan have made available a host of resources for youth, educators, and adults. What I love about these is that they enhance and expand on the core competencies, are of high quality, and are freely available. I hope that you find any of the links worthwhile and that it may support a teacher’s lesson planning, guide a conversation for a parent with their child, or serve as a self-exploration for a curious mind.
Quebec
Ontario
Saskatchewan
For a broader audience
Financial literacy is critical to financial well-being and engaging education is one way to stoke a long-lasting interest. It is wishful thinking that a single course or test has this effect; I’m aware that my former students will have forgotten most of the mathematics behind present value calculations. My hope is that the broader messages have stuck and that they have resources they can confide in, providing advice in their best interest.
