Youth tackle BC economy at Community Summit

On Saturday, Sept. 28, SFU Surrey played host to “Our Future, Our Voice,” the first event of the week-long 2013 Community Summit: Charting BC’s Economic Future, hosted by SFU Public Square. The day-long forum invited youth between 16 and 25 years old to participate in roundtable and panel discussions, and weigh in on the economic future of the province.

Of the 90 students who attended SFU Public Square’s second annual youth forum, many weighed in on the event through Twitter under #OurVoiceBC, which was projected on a screen in front of the main theatre for the entire duration of the event.

Participants were encouraged to tweet questions to the three panelists — BC education minister Peter Fassbender, Surrey councillor Barinda Rasode, and NDP MP Jenni Sims — who would be speaking at the end of the day.

The youth engagement factor played a large role in shaping the design of the event, said organizer Jackie Pichette, Research and Communications Officer with SFU Public Square. Pichette facilitated “idea jams” over the past two months where young people were asked to design a youth forum that they would want to attend.

Twitter was a unanimously desired element, as were smaller break-out groups where participants would be able to meet people currently in job industries they were interested in entering into after graduation. In response, the event featured small roundtable dialogues held over lunch, where community and industry representatives from law enforcement, media, tech, construction, and other sectors, were open to questioning.

Only a handful of attendees were post-secondary students, with the overwhelming majority being from high schools across the Lower Mainland. This turnout which surprised Pichette, who said that at last year’s youth forum, there was a more even mix of university and high school students.

There was no way I was making a panel with more men than women.”

– Jackie Pichette,
Research and Communications Officer, SFU Public Square

For many of the attendees it was their first time being able to engage with politicians in such a direct manner. “I didn’t know anything about this forum when I decided to attend, but now I’m excited for the opportunity to ask actual politicians some questions,” said Sunaina Paudel, a grade 12 student at Johnston Heights Secondary, who heard about the event through her student leadership group.

Other attendees had a more developed interest in politics. Amie Johnson, a third-year political science student at SFU, works for the city of Surrey as a child and youth engagement assistant. She facilitated one of the 100 Community Conversations that had happened in the past two months, which were events also hosted by SFU Public Square. “I hope to run for office in the municipal government someday, so this is important to me,” she said.

The event began with a morning icebreaker, followed by SFU professor Matt Hern, founder of Car Free Day and Purple Thistle Centre who spoke on the GDP as a poor measure of the economy.

The final segment of the day was the panel, moderated by ex-CTV reporter Kai Nagata. There was friendly tension between the three panelists, all of whom represented different opinions along the political spectrum. Youth-centric issues, such as education and jobs, dominated the discussion, though gender and race also featured prominently.

“You’re in the minority here,” Rasode and Sims joked to Fassbender in reference to one participant’s tweet, which noted that women of colour outnumbered white men on the panel.

“There was no way I was making a panel with more men than women,” said Pichette.

On education, Rasode spoke to the importance of including students and teachers in the discussion rather than keeping the dialogue behind closed doors among elected representatives — a statement partially directed at Sims, the former president of the BC Teacher’s Federation.

When asked about employment opportunities in the province, Fassbender said that many BC jobs simply were not located in Vancouver, but in the interior province, like Dawson Creek. “You ladies can go up there and buy a truck, and not have to sell drugs,” he said to appeal to young women in the audience.

He also talked about managing resources more sustainably, rather than shutting down the operations altogether, though he did not mention renewable sources, a sentiment that proved unpopular among the live tweeters. In response, Sims said that economic and environmental sustainability should not be seen as two separate entities.

The panel proved to be popular with attendees, who were allowed to direct questions at the attendees for the last half hour of the session.