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Youth, seniors committees want more involvement decision making

St. Albert's youth and seniors' advisory committees are looking to be more involved in city decision making moving forward, as both of the committee's future will be decided by council next month.
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Both the Seniors' and Youth Advisory Committees are recommending council find ways to engage them more frequently, rather than disband them. FILE/Photo

St. Albert's youth and seniors' advisory committees are looking to be more involved in city decision-making and are determined to keep their committees alive despite discussions around disbanding the two groups altogether. 

In February it was reported that both the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) and Seniors' Advisory Committee (SAC) were both being under-utilized by city council and council directed city staff to develop a report with future recommendations for the two committees. 

Administration was also advised disbanding both committees was an option.

Both committees were tasked with developing their own recommendations for what the future of their committee should be, and recommendations are scheduled to be presented to council on June 13. 

Randy Black, the 2023 chair of the SAC, says his committee has developed four recommendations, including an annual minimum number of projects, bylaws, or other items before council being referred to the SAC for an opinion prior to voting.

“Staying in an advisory capacity where council draws upon us, we felt, was still the best path forward,” Black said. “Quite frankly, I'm hoping this council and administration do a little bit of a step back and say, ‘we've got these group of volunteers, they're frustrated that they're not being engaged, let's engage them.’”

Another recommendation SAC developed, Black said, is to reduce the legislated number of residents that can serve on the committee.

Currently the SAC must have a minimum of eight members. However, not including Coun. Natalie Joly, who serves on the committee as a non-voting member, there are just six members this year, and one of this year's appointees attended the first meeting of 2023 and has yet to return.

“If you're not being engaged to do something meaningful, the reaction will tend to be ‘why am I here?’ and that's part of what was the committee's struggle,” Black said.

“We're meeting just for the sake of meeting and what we want council to do is to pull — we don't want to be pushing seniors in issues at council, unless there's something that we have a unique perspective or lens upon and really want council to consider it — we want (council) to pull us into providing comments or advice around any issues that are seniors' issues.”

Saige Yakemchuk, this year's chair of the YAC, said the committee hasn't finalized its recommendations quite yet, as the group has one more meeting before administration's report is due before council; however, the YAC is workshopping five recommendations.

Yakemchuk said the youth committee will also be seeking increased involvement in council decision-making by having more items referred for a youth opinion prior to voting.

“We're very determined, and I believe that throughout this entire process, if anything, we've learned that not just our committee of youth but also all the youth in St. Albert want to have a voice in government,” Yakemchuk said. “We want to have a voice in these decisions that will affect us.”

Another recommendation the YAC may present to council, Yakemchuk said, is to have the committee's bylaw explicitly encourage and allow for volunteering opportunities in the community for committee members.

“We were also looking at what more of a role can our committee play in our community, because in addition to being an advisory committee, we also have done lots of volunteering and we've done lots of activities and roles in the community that isn't necessarily specified in the bylaws,” she said.

“We really just want (our) vital role in our community to be recognized and we do genuinely believe that these recommendations will allow us to fulfill that role and for future committee members to fill that role, and just to work and serve the people of St. Albert as much as we can.”

Council will have its first opportunity to discuss the recommendations, as well as administration's, during the June 13 standing committee of the whole meeting.

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