Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish is hoping to see a local high school student join council in the new year.
Beamish presented his idea to council at the Nov. 20 meeting, saying it was something that worked well when he was in Tuktoyaktuk.
“Every year we had a new youth representative on council. They attended meetings, they spoke on issues that were important to them and youth in the community… They felt that they were being recognized in the community,” he said.
Beamish said he’s already had a chance to discuss the possibility with School District No. 46 and students.
“I have discussed this with the high school … and there were students who were very interested in participating in this,” he said.
Beamish proposed to have one student councillor, with an alternate.
The students would attend council and committee meetings, except in-camera sessions, and could participate in any discussions and even have a vote, although the vote would not count towards passage or defeat of motions. They’d also be expected to offer regular reports along with other councillors.
They’d also get paid. Beamish suggested $75 per meeting, which would be set aside as an “education reserve” to be administered by the Town and awarded to the student after they graduate.
The position would be open to any senior student at Elphinstone Secondary and applicants would be asked to submit an essay of not more than 1,000 words on “My Role As A Student Member Of Council,” along with a brief resumé.
The school would do an initial vetting and forward a short list to council, who would make the final choice.
Coun. Stafford Lumley said he liked the idea, but wasn’t comfortable with giving the student councillor a vote.
Other suggestions included encouraging the school board to set up an advisory group of fellow students that could offer advice and direction to the student councillor and holding an election at the school to choose the councillor.
Council voted unanimously to draft terms of reference and amendments to the procedure bylaw and include the $75 per meeting stipend in the 2019 budget.
Beamish said he hopes to have applications to consider “right after Christmas.”
“You’ll see we’ve already created a vacant seat at the council table for a student,” he told the gallery, noting an empty space at the far end of the council table.
If approved the student councillor position would be a pilot project for the rest of 2018-19 school year and be reviewed prior to the start of the 2019-2020 school year.
