City council has appointed nine high school students to the City of Moose Jaw’s youth advisory committee.
During its Oct. 5 regular meeting, council voted unanimously appointed Rebecca Gutek, Joel Godard, Liam Vargo, Jadyn Moser, Adoor Choul, Tyrell Philipenko, Annamae Hunter, Affaf Kashif and Andrew Peterson-Gray for a term of office to commence immediately and to conclude on June 30, 2021.
Gutek and Godard are from Cornerstone Christian School, Vargo is from A.E. Peacock Collegiate, Moser and Choul are from Vanier Collegiate, Philipenko and Hunter are from Riverview Collegiate, and Kashin and Peterson-Gray are from Central Collegiate.
City council initially made appointments to address vacancies on municipal advisory committees during its Aug. 24 meeting. Since then, the city clerk’s office has received more applications for the youth advisory committee.
During the Oct. 5 meeting, council also voted unanimously to add home-school student and accredited-distance student positions to the committee.
In introducing the motion, Coun. Crystal Froese explained that she spoke to a 16-year-old girl who attends an accredited online high school and wants to participate on the committee but doesn’t fall into the existing eligibility categories. Furthermore, the community is also changing since more students are being home-schooled or taking distance learning.
“I would never want to discourage any youth from participating, especially on this committee, since it is worthwhile and a great way to engage youth,” she added.
When high schools submit potential names to council for consideration, the teachers and school administrators are the ones who make the recommendations, said Coun. Heather Eby. She wondered what would happen if three home-school students are nominated and how council would handle that.
“It would not just be a name recommended to us; it would be a situation,” she added.
There is an application process to join other municipal committees, replied Froese. Council could rely on city administration to fit in these students as well.
If multiple names are submitted, the ones with background information attached would be presented to council, explained city clerk Myron Gulka-Tiechko. Once council passed the motion, his office would put out calls soon to find students who are either home-schooled or attend an accredited online school.
“It is one of the great committees to see the next generation (of) up and coming (leaders),” said Mayor Fraser Tolmie, who noted that other students on the committee represent their school while home-school youths would represent themselves. “It is an interesting way forward and it may be something we need to fine-tune in future.”
Municipal committee vacancies
There are vacancies on other municipal boards and committees, including:
• Development appeals board (three citizen-at-large vacancies)
• Cultural diversity advisory committee (two citizen-at-large vacancies)
• Heritage advisory committee (one citizen-at-large vacancy)
• Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners (two citizen-at-large vacancies)
• Moose Jaw Public Library (five to 15 citizen-at-large vacancies)
• Palliser Regional Library board (seven citizens-at-large; to be eligible for appointment, residents must be an appointed member of the Moose Jaw Public Library)
• Murals project management committee (three citizen-at-large vacancies)
• Parks, facilities and recreation advisory committee (three citizen-at-large vacancies)
• Public works, infrastructure and environment advisory committee (one citizen-at-large vacancy for a representative of the Aboriginal or Metis community)
• Special needs advisory committee (seven citizen-at-large vacancies)
• Youth advisory committee (one representative being a home school student who is a resident of Moose Jaw; one student representative from an accredited distance learning school who is a resident of Moose Jaw; and two youth-at-large representatives, between 18 and 25 years of age, from schools not currently represented on the committee.)
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Oct. 19.
