By Molly Stogran
City councillors are encouraging local youth to remain involved in municipal politics despite the unceremonious abolition of the Ottawa Youth Cabinet.
The youth cabinet was established with great fanfare in 2000 to create a bridge between the youth of Ottawa and Ottawa City Council. However, Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes says she doesn’t feel the cabinet properly represented the diversity of the city’s youth. One youth representative from each of Ottawa’s 21 wards was chosen to sit on the cabinet.
“One youth (per ward) simply doesn’t cut it,” says Holmes. “If youth in the city want us to be doing things that we’re not doing, they can contact their city councillor or elected representative.”
The cabinet was also plagued by poor attendance of members, cancelled meetings and lack of focus. It was dissolved by a unanimous vote of city council on Jan. 12 as the result of a motion by Coun. Jan Harder, one of the three council representatives on the cabinet.
It stated that “the City’s Formal Advisory Committee format, with its respective rules and procedures, is not the best venue to solicit the concerns of Ottawa’s Youth.”
As the Orléans representative, 17-year-old Anant Gadia endured the 30-minute commute to the monthly meetings only to be faced with frequent cancellations due to lack of quorum.
“Meetings, which were held at City Hall, were difficult to attend because members were commuting from areas as far as Osgoode and Kanata,” says Gadia. These are just some of the complaints.
It’s difficult for youth to follow the same policy, protocol and procedures as adult committees, says David Millen, executive director of Child and Youth Friendly Ottawa. “It’s even hard for small, inexperienced adult committees to get through the maze (of policies, protocols, and procedures),” he says.
CAYFO helped with the inauguration of the youth cabinet in 2000. It was one of the youth-oriented organizations involved in the process of ensuring the involvement of youth in city council.
“Young people inherit what we adults leave behind,” says Millen, expressing his disappointment at the youth cabinet’s fate. “The youth’s voice is critical.”
Harder, councillor for Bell-South Nepean, was a non-voting member of the cabinet and a well-known advocate for the committee. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, the youth have to determine what it is they want to do,” says Harder.
“It has to be driven by them, it can’t be driven by adults,” she added, referring to the possibility of a new, revamped version of the youth cabinet. “My door is open and City Hall’s door is open and we’re waiting for (the youth) to come in with any ideas.”
Andrew Moonsammy, another former youth cabinet member, insists that the cabinet was “very productive in what they did,” but agrees that it was a good decision to end it. “What we had was abolished, but we’re moving toward something more sustainable,” says Moonsammy. However, he is unsure of how this can be done.
Former Capital Ward representative Margie Marlin agrees that the cabinet’s demise was inevitable.
“I don’t feel as though it was something that was unfairly taken away by the government because it was very problematic at the end,” says Marlin.
A second-year history student at Carleton University, Marlin joined the cabinet in June 2003 during a change in chairperson and vice-chairperson. “With new leadership and turnover with people that didn’t click as well, it progressively got worse,” she says.
Marlin continues to be involved in city issues despite the collapse of the cabinet.
She is currently concerned with the issue of transportation in the city and is taking her own initiative to make changes. Marlin finds it tough to get around on OC Transpo lately and feels something needs to be modified.
“I’ve voiced my concerns and continue working on talking to people and the government about it,” she says. “They are there to represent you.”