'Promote to your youth': Yellowknife students voice their concerns for the upcoming election

Campaigning for the upcoming Northwest Territories election is now underway, and some constituents who aren't yet able to vote still want their concerns heard by candidates. For high school students in Yellowknife, emergency management and post-secondary education are some of the top priorities.

Isha Jha is a Grade 12 student at École St. Patrick High School. Better emergency management is a top concern for her. Jha said that during the wildfires the ministers' messaging was at times contradictory, and that she would prefer more honest and thought-out government responses.

"I think it was really rushed and a lot of people, a lot of my friends and family, felt very, very stressed," she said. "I want to see a government that has plans prior to the emergency."

Students at École Sir John Franklin High School also said they want to see better emergency preparedness — especially when it comes to infrastructure in the territory.

"North of 60, there's one highway in and one highway out, and there's one internet line in and one internet line out. That's something that we've talked about lots this summer" said Kali Skauge, a Grade 12 student at Sir John Franklin.

Several communities lost internet access during the summer after wildfires damaged fibre lines — jeopardizing emergency communications. Shawn Dragon, another Sir John Franklin student, said expanding the territory's road network is vital for ensuring the best emergency preparedness.

"Especially communities that don't even have that one highway to get out. If certain communities that are fly-in only were threatened by fire, it would have to be mass air-lifted to get them out," he said. "That's something that could be seen as a very big problem for those communities in the near future."

In addition to concerns about emergency management and infrastructure in the territory, several students who spoke to CBC would also like to see better post–secondary opportunities for young people.

Aurora College is the only post-secondary institution in the territory. The main campus is in Fort Smith, with two smaller campuses in Inuvik and Yellowknife, however these campuses offer limited programs for students. Grade 12 student Asfa Arshad from St. Pat's said that she would like to have the option to pursue post-secondary opportunities closer to home.

"I'm starting grad applications for university, and I thought it would have been really great to have maybe a university in Yellowknife that we could have. That would be really good," Arshad said.

Rudi Slagter, a Grade 12 student at Sir John Franklin, also wants to see more education opportunities for Northerners. Rudy has worked in the trades and said there's not only a shortage of skilled tradespeople in the N.W.T., but also a lack of accessible trades programs.

"Aurora College, I feel like we could use a better program to train people up here. Because some people don't have the means to get people down south or have the money to do that. So having a better trades program up here would definitely benefit the territory," he said.

These Yellowknife students said they would like to see leaders who are charismatic, show empathy to their constituents, and are transparent about government shortcomings. Several of the students also said they want more youth engagement coming from candidates — not campaigning, but inquiry into the issues that are most important to the territory's youth.

"Promote to your youth, these are the future generations" said Hannah Janes, a Grade 12 student at St. Pat's. "I turn 18 in about 10 months so I'll be able to vote in Canada's next election and the candidates should be promoting to us as well."