Prince George City Council will be hearing from the city’s students next week.
The Select Committee on Student Needs held several meetings this school year, bringing together representatives from UNBC’s Undergraduate and Graduate Societies, CNC’s Student Union the SD57 Student Advisory Council to develop a series of priorities to present to Councillors.
The eight priorities, in order of importance are;
1. Transportation
2. Housing
3. Recreation/Active Living
4. Jobs
5. Downtown Culture / Entertainment
6. Better Quality of Education
7. Representation of Students
8. Healthier Protected Environment
Committee Chair Jillian Merrick isn’t surprised transportation is at the top of the list. She says at the very first meeting they handed the students $100 in mock money, “they could spend it on public services as they wish. Transit specifically, and transportation improvements came out with twice as much mock investment as any of the other priorities.”
The students also appear to like the idea of living downtown, recognizing that it would help improve the overall culture of the area.
“A lot of people say that people don’t want to live downtown. But the students really do want to, but they just aren’t finding appropriate accommodation.”
A white paper from the committee shows students feel that Prince George is relatively ‘job accessible’, with plenty of opportunities for graduates launching their career. However job creation strategies could have a wider focus in some student’s eyes.
“The idea of having a job creation strategy provincially that takes into consideration what the priorities of students are… is a concept that hasn’t been championed in a real way, we tend to focus on employers.” Merrick said
She says the four student groups had previously never formally met until these committee meetings, and that collaboration between them has improved as a result. The committee will reform next fall with a new set of student representatives and new ideas.
Merrick says many of the students voiced the desire to move beyond just giving advice “They wanted actual projects to work on and things to do. They are hoping that the new group that meets again in the fall will have a small budget to do some student engagement in city life and civic affair.”
The Committee also recommended that the City host a ‘Talktober’ neighbourhood conversation at CNC or UNBC dedicated to students.