A local Grade 12 student and Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons are launching a youth council for constituents younger than 26.
Described as a non-partisan group bringing together young people “who want to be more involved in decisions affecting their local community, the region, and the province,” the Sunshine Coast Constituency Youth Council’s first meeting is Sept. 25 at Simons’ Davis Bay office.
No stranger to political involvement, collaborator in the initiative Cael Read was sworn in as School District No. 46’s student trustee Sept. 13 and he is the youth representative on Gibsons town council. “My hope is for this group to become a forum for people from all across the Coast to meet and discuss issues,” said Read in an email. The goal is for the group to be open to as many people as want to be involved – starting with the few he’s recruited so far with hopefully more dropping into the Monday meeting, and the group slowly expanding.
Being the student trustee and Gibsons youth representative, Read says he’s noticed many similar discussions happening in groups but it’s hard for singular groups to take action. “For example, the Gibsons Accessibility Committee, which the previous Gibsons Youth Representative was on, was talking about how to advocate for free youth transit at the same time as the [District Student Leadership Team] was also talking about it. Once there was a collaboration between the two groups, progress on the initiative was able to progress much faster and gain much more support.” (Out of that initiative came a regional accessibility committee, which now has the backing of three local governments.) “I hope that this group can bring people together, and become the catalyst for similar initiatives,” said Read.
A point of passion for Read, he hopes youth access to transit is an issue the new council picks up, but more importantly he wants to listen to what other youth council members want to do with the group.
Read is also a member of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP Patrick Weiler’s constituency youth council (which he enjoys), but he says he wants this group take a slightly different approach than its federal counterpart. “The topics for the meeting will be public, and anyone who is interested can drop in to the meeting and share their opinion,” he said.
Those interested in the youth council’s inaugural meeting can attend Sept. 25 at 2 p.m. at Simons’ Davis Bay Constituency Office at 5-4720 Sunshine Coast Hwy, Sechelt, BC, (Pier 17) or attend via Zoom. Future meetings may be held in the qathet Region. For more information email [email protected].
