This past July, Ritchot’s council added a new member to its ranks when St. Adolphe resident Alexie Lepage began her one-year term as the municipality’s first youth councillor.
The position was created to allow a young resident to attend council meetings both to listen and weigh in, although not to vote on issues. Last October, Ritchot Mayor Chris Ewen announced the intention to add the role, and in the spring applications were made available for any local resident who was a full-time student under the age of 18.
When the council announced the creation of the position, the policy concerning the role stated, “By working with youth, council hopes to develop better communications for existing opportunities, involve and familiarize them with the operations of our municipal government, and listen to suggestions on what the municipality can do to improve its youth-oriented efforts.”
Lepage says that when her mom showed her an advertisement for the post, she was interested right off the bat.
“I was really interested in this opportunity,” says Lepage, who is a Grade 11 student at Collège régional Gabrielle-Roy in Île-des-Chênes. “I’m not too sure what I want to do in my future and if it involves politics, but I wanted to do this to learn more about how council works and what’s happening in our area.”
A few months in, Lepage says her experiences have helped her gain a lot of insight into the political process and her community. She also feels she’s been able to offer something to council in return.
“I hope that my opinion can be valuable, since I am from a different generation and so they get to see a different perspective from their own,” she says, “and I think that them being able to see a younger person’s view on how things might affect us here—that might help them out in making decisions.”
Recently, for example, council heard a proposal from Slavjanka Transport Company Ltd to build a transportation terminal south of Provincial Road 210 on the edge of St. Adolphe. Several residents were concerned about this placement, including the youth councillor.
“I raised my concern that a lot of kids go biking around that area, and that this addition would increase traffic, which would not help safety,” she says.
Council voted unanimously to reject the application.
Lepage says she is looking forward to the rest of her term, and while she isn’t sure if politics will play a role in her life after high school, she thinks it is a worthwhile activity and hopes others will be able to take advantage of this opportunity in the future.
“Politics are really interesting and I think it’s really cool but also important to be able to understand it better and really see what’s going on in the community,” she concludes. “When I’m able to vote, I’ll understand a bit more how things work and what’s going on.”
