A group of Barrie youth is marching downtown this weekend, demanding their input be considered for the city’s climate policy.
On Sunday, October 17th at 1:00 p.m., the group will be marching from Barrie City Hall to Meridian Place to demand city council listen to young voices when making climate policy.
“We, the youth, are demanding not only to be heard – but to be considered,” says Emily Goodson, president of the Simcoe County Environmental Youth Alliance. “It is time that cities are held accountable for their lack of action on the climate crisis.”
The Simcoe County Environmental Youth Alliance (SCEYA) is a group of young people from across the region advocating for climate justice. It is organizing a climate strike in downtown Barrie as part of the #ImagineBarrie campaign, which seeks to envision what the future of Barrie could look like with real climate action, and to urge our government to take that action.
It says this rally will demonstrate that climate change is a critical issue which connects and impacts everyone.
“Youth are striking not because we want to, but because we need to. We can no longer sit around waiting for politicians to care. We need to make them care,” says Lucy Duncan, an organizer with SCEYA.
“Something that I think we should strive to accomplish is to be fully powered by green energy by 2030, it’s a big goal, but one that would create so much positive change and really push us on the right track,” says Kaylyn Wilkinson, an organizer at SCEYA. This is one of the things that the youth at SCEYA are demanding of the city council, along with improving the city’s public transit systems and investing in BIPOC communities.