Ottawa youths call for greater involvement in transit consultations
Diya Praveen has had her fair share of frustration with Ottawa’s transit system . As a Grade 12 student at St. Paul High School who relies on the city’s buses and trains to get around, she says she has witnessed countless “inconsistencies,” namely late buses.
It wasn’t until she heard from her peers at a youth consultation session, however, that she realized the magnitude of the transit issue for youths in Ottawa.
“It was interesting to hear how some people have much worse experiences than I have in terms of safety and the unreliability of the transit system,” Praveen said.
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As a program manager with Club Opti-Jeunesse Des Jeunes Adultes (COJA), Praveen participated in creating a preliminary report highlighting youths’ experiences and perspectives on Ottawa’s transit system.
The report was published on Oct. 1 following consultation sessions by COJA and Change Makers Club of Canada (CMC) on May 26 and June 5.
“My biggest surprise was the fact that different youths have different perspectives on transportation and that a lot of them are not even considered properly (by municipal leaders),” Praveen said.
Praveen says the City of Ottawa ’s consultation process is an example of how policy consultation systems in general are built around adults. It has been a point of frustration not just for her, but also those who participated in the consultations in May and June, who according to the report want to be part of Ottawa’s civic process.
“I believe that a lot of young youths want to participate,” Praveen said. “I’ve seen that in friends, people that I have worked with, people in my school, (but) a lot of youths don’t know what opportunities they have.”
The city’s consultations often take place during work hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which Praveen says makes it almost impossible for youths to participate since that overlaps school hours.
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