My Speeches

Bill 207 - Young Albertans' Advisory Council Act, 2008

Posted on Nov 04, 2008

The hon. Member for Battle River-Wainwright.

Mr. Griffiths: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure for me today
to rise to speak to Bill 207, the Young Albertans’ Advisory Council
Act of 2008. I’m very excited that the Member for Calgary-North
Hill has presented this.
You know, in April of 2002 I was elected in a by-election as the
sixth-youngest member in the history of this Legislature. I was very
proud of that, Mr. Speaker. I spent that entire term being the
youngest member. I spent my second term as a member of this
Legislature also as the youngest member, and I started to get a little
bit worried that I might be the youngest member in here for quite
awhile. I was very excited in the last election that four new
members came in here that were younger than me. In fact, two of
them were younger than me when I was first elected – they pushed
me to being the eighth-youngest member ever elected in this House
– and one of them is the hon. Member for Calgary-North Hill, who
has introduced this.
Mr. Speaker, when I was first elected four years ago, I had the
distinct pleasure of working on the rural development strategy for
the province of Alberta. I found that very exciting because that’s
what I campaigned on. But after a few years of working on the
strategy, writing it and travelling all over the province speaking
about rural development and what was necessary, I actually got a
little bit frustrated. I started to talk about things that communities
were doing that were destroying themselves. You see, everybody
has goals and dreams and ambitions, and all of these communities in
rural Alberta want to be successful – they really do – but quite often
we do things day to day that undermine all those goals and ambitions
that we have. We don’t realize that the activities we’re doing today
can undermine those goals that we have.
So I wrote a speech called 13 Ways to Kill a Community, which I have delivered all over this province – all over this province. I’ve
actually given the speech over 115 times in different communities in
this province. One of those 13 ways to kill a community, one of
those things that communities do that ultimately leads to their
destruction, even though they want to be successful, is to not engage
youth. In fact, that’s number 3 of the 13 ways to kill your community.
Now, when I speak of youth, Mr. Speaker, I’m not referring to
high school students or junior high students. I’m talking about
young people who are between the ages of 18 and 35, the group
that’s most typically disengaged from the political process. Every
community knows that it’s important to engage youth in their future.
When I give this speech, I often cite a young lady named Shawna
Wallace, who worked on the rural development strategy with me.
Some people like to joke that I put her on the Rural Development
Strategy Task Force that we worked on because I didn’t want to be
the youngest person in the room anymore, but that’s not true. She’s
a brilliant young woman, who I believe was 22 at the time.
She used to point out to me all the time that as she travelled
around talking about how it’s important to engage youth, people
actually would kind of shrug their shoulders and say things like,
“The youth are leaving our community,” or “There’s no opportunity
for youth in our community.” She used to tell everybody that
instead of saying that, to just imagine that the youth are actually the
future. So substitute “future” in those phrases when you say it.
Instead of saying, “The youth are leaving our community,” say “The
future is leaving our community.” Instead of saying, “There are no
opportunities for youth in our community,” try saying, “There are no
opportunities for the future in our community,” and see if you can
still just shrug your shoulders and think it’s not such a big deal.
The solution, Mr. Speaker, is succession planning. All over rural
Alberta there are tax specialists travelling around telling farmers
how to do succession planning, the purpose of which is not just to
make sure that farmers don’t lose half the farm to the taxman when
they sell or transfer it to the next generation but to make sure that the
next generation has something left to take over.
Travelling all over this province, I found only one community –
I’ve been to 263 communities out of the 422 speaking about rural
development in one way, shape or form – in all of that that does
succession planning for town or county council; one, Mr. Speaker.
Not one of them did succession planning for main street businesses
to make sure that business is transferred to the next generation.
Now, that one community actually has a youth group set up. They
go through sort of an election. They’re invited to the town or county
council meeting, and they’re engaged in the process. Their whole
goal in this community is to make sure that those young people are
fit and trained and prepared for taking over town council when
they’re ready, when they want to. That’s their goal. Now, I’m not
saying that every aged person has to get off every town and county
council, but we all know that succession planning is critical. You
have got to have a blend of age and experience with youth and
energy and new ideas if you’re going to ensure success.
Now, you’ve probably all seen – I think the advertisement is
probably 20 years old now – that little ring that circles around a
young person in the advertisement that says: I can’t get a job
because I have no experience; I have no experience because I can’t
get a job. You could say the exact same thing about youth when it
comes to government: I have no experience because I’m young; I’m
still young and not included because I have no experience. Around
and around the circle goes. Opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to engage
youth means great succession planning, and it’s important for every
single level of government, every business, if they’re going to have
a future, to make sure that they do succession planning.


Alberta Hansard November 3, 2008
1710
That young lady I referred to before, Shawna Wallace, also
pointed out to me that you can’t just invite youth to come in. You
can’t just say, well, they’ll come in when they’re ready or even
invite them in. She actually talked about three different levels of
engagement for young people. She’d say that you can invite them
in, ask them what their challenges are, and then you can say thank
you very much. You consulted with them, off they go, and then you
can work on them. That’s wonderful. Or she said that you can
invite them in, ask them what their challenges are, and ask them
what they think the solutions are, hear them out, and then say thank
you very much and maybe try and work on them.
The most meaningful and deepest level of engagement, Mr.
Speaker, is when you invite youth in, ask them what their challenges
are and what their opportunities are, and then you ask them to help
you implement them, help you fix them. That’s the most meaningful
level of engagement. That’s what this government needs to do.
That’s what every level of government needs to do, and it’s not just
government. It’s business. It’s everything. With the rapidly
declining voter turnout, with the increasingly apathetic populace,
especially those that are typically under 35 and disengaged, this
government, all governments have to act soon to engage the next
generation.

5:10
Now, we have a youth advisory council for ages 15 to 25, but they
operate mostly in children’s services and, I believe, comment
primarily on youth and justice types of issues. As the mover of the
bill pointed out earlier, I believe that youth advisory councils are
being proposed in other ministries as well, but, Mr. Speaker, that’s
a fractured approach. We need one council, one group of people
from 18 to 35 who collectively and meaningfully get engaged in a
range of issues, collectively so that it’s not fragmented. That will
help build their confidence. That will help build the notion within
them that we actually feel like they’re important, that we’ve drug
them into the process and they take us seriously, that their opinion
matters.Now, when you engage youth, you engage the future. With that
said, I hope this government organizes itself on matters associated
with young Albertans, finds opportunities for them to become more
meaningfully engaged. I would like to give them the time to do that.
I really would. With the proposal of other youth council organizations
I honestly believe there is the intent to do that. So I would like
to propose an amendment that I hope will give the time to government
to act swiftly and quickly to engage youth in a meaningful way
that’s collective so that they build up the confidence for when they
decide to enter this House or enter government or enter the bureaucracy
or any other level.
Mr. Speaker, the amendment I propose moves that the motion for
second reading of Bill 207, the Young Albertans’ Advisory Council
Act, be amended by deleting all of the words after “that” and
substituting the following: “Bill 207, Young Albertans’ Advisory
Council Act, be not now read a second time but that it be read a
second time this day six months hence.”
Mr. Speaker, if I may, as the amendment is being passed around,
I would just like to extend my congratulations and sincere appreciation
to the member who has brought forward this motion, my
heartfelt appreciation for bringing this issue to the floor. I look
forward to seeing action taken by the government.