The future of both St. Albert's youth and seniors' advisory committee will be decided this spring as city administration is scheduled to recommend changes to each committee's purpose, with disbandment considered an option.
Last October, during a committee of the whole meeting, council disbanded a third advisory committee, the economic sustainability advisory board, and directed administration to bring a report to council with "opportunities to improve advisory mechanisms, including recommendations for the future of the [Youth Advisory Committee] and [Seniors' Advisory Committee]," the passed motion reads.
Both committees have struggled to develop a clear purpose said a council backgrounder prepared for the October meeting by deputy chief administrative officer Dianne Enger and senior manager of community services Elizabeth Wilkie, but committee chairs say the lack of opportunity to advise on council matters leaves them with little to do.
"[Last] year, we were asked to comment on one thing, and only one thing, and that was to do with the new washrooms at St. Albert Place," Randy Black, the chair of the seniors' advisory committee (SAC) said.
"There was a great frustration within the committee," Black said of SAC's experience last year. "We were a body of individuals who wanted to be actively involved, and we weren't actively involved."
"To have a group of volunteers not meaningfully engaged is a bit of a travesty."
The seniors' committee was established in late 2018 through a motion put forward by former city councillor Ray Watkins, and the group started meeting in 2019.
"The primary role of the [SAC] is to review and provide input into policy and other city initiatives, as requested by council or administration," a council report says. "This may include report preparation or recommendations on matters that impact seniors or community trends that could affect seniors."
With the city only requesting input from the SAC on one project, Black said the committee cancelled a third of their meetings last year.
"I do believe we need to move on and examine, as has been discussed, what is the future of the seniors' committee — is it truly a useful entity? Or are we really only paying lip service to the involvement of seniors in advising council and supporting council in their decisions," Black said.
Saige Yakemchuk, the 2023 chair for the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), says her committee experience is similar to that of the seniors.
"We're not being given a lot to give our opinion on and we don't have much to tell council right now because council isn't really giving us much," Yakemchuk said.
The YAC was established by city council in March of 2017, and similarly to the SAC, a council backgrounder states that the YAC's mandate "is to provide information and advice to council in relation to issues involving or affecting youth."
Although administration and council have requested little input from the YAC, Yakemchuk said she felt as though the committee still provides local youth with unique learning opportunities.
"When we are in our committee we have an actual city councillor with us, we have a staff liaison, and ... when we're in there, it's teaching us so many valuable skills and it really helps us to see ourselves as something more in the community," she said.
"It just provides really amazing opportunities to grow."
Unlike the SAC and YAC, other civic advisory committees such as the Community Services Advisory Committee (CSAC) and the Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) have specific responsibilities further than simply providing input when asked.
For example, the CSAC and EAC both are responsible for annually making grant funding recommendations for council's consideration for city grant programs such as the Outside Agency Grant and the Environmental Initiatives Grant.
As well, the CSAC is also able to make policy recommendations directly to council as it relates to community services.
Coun. Mike Killick, who serves as the council representative and non-voting member for both the CSAS and the EAC, said both committees have busy schedules.
"Both committees have very busy schedules of work that they're going to be looking at other than grant funding," Killick said. "They have a big role in community input."
"I'm hoping that we can find a way to continue to find the [SAC and YAC] a more engaging role because I think that we really need to hear from our youth and our seniors on a lot of initiatives that come to the city," he said.
"I'm really hoping we can still find a meaningful role for them so that we can hear their voices and make sure their perspectives are included in all of the things that city administration brings forward."
Options
A document included in the agenda package for the October committee of the whole meeting contains a few preliminary options for changing the SAC and YAC that administration identified and may recommend this spring.
The options include disbanding both the SAC and YAC and transferring their responsibility to the Community Services Advisory Committee; disbanding both committees and having city staff report to council twice per year on current issues and emergent needs for local youth and seniors; conjoining the SAC and YAC; and disband both committees and establish an "extensive citizen registry."
The citizen registry, the document reads, "could be curated for the purpose of being a sounding board for council to gain resident perspective on issues and policies."
When asked what he'd like the future of the SAC to be, Black spoke in favour of disbanding the committee and replacing it with a "citizens committee."
"I think that's a better move," Black said, adding, "I think providing a wider scope or a wider lens that we can use to be able to provide input and potentially even steer council, in their deliberations and in their decision making."
Yakemchuk said she'd like the YAC to remain as is, but with additional opportunity and direction from council.
"I think what would hurt us the most is missing out on those opportunities to learn from city officials and all those people because it's a really niche field," Yakemchuk said when asked what she felt the harm would be if the YAC was disbanded.
"I've learned so much more in these few months than I have from my 12 years of grade school," Yakemchuk said, adding, "I now know how council work and I know so much more about how these committees run and how local politics work."
Coun. Natalie Joly, who is the 2023 council representative for both the SAC and YAC, and was the 2022 council representative for the YAC as well, says she's not sure what administration will recommend this spring, but she doesn't think merging the youth and seniors together to form one committee will work well.
"I want to make sure that the space continues to be a safe place to learn, to ask questions, and I don't know if we would get the same kind of participation [from youth] if there were adults on the committee who are experienced in municipal politics," Joly said.
"I would really like to see youth on all of our advisory committees, but as a youth specific thing there would be challenges to mixing the youth with other groups," she said.
"I don't know what the best new model will look like so I'm looking forward to hearing feedback from both committees and see what we can do."
