Members of Nova Scotia's first youth climate council offer mixed opinions

A photo of Nova Scotia's environment minister and 13 smiling young people fills the front page of a document titled "Urgent Times, Urgent Action."

It's the province's annual report on steps taken to protect the environment, and curb and mitigate the effects of climate change.

The report came out last month. When Sophia Lindfield saw the photo, she was annoyed.

Lindfield is one of the smiling youths, who together made up Nova Scotia's first youth climate council.

"I wasn't surprised, necessarily, to see that they were interested in putting our photo on the front," Lindfield said in an interview.

"The youth climate council is something that they really like to talk about as a major climate achievement. But it did really just highlight and remind me of some of the anger that I've been feeling about the fact they were just interested in using our photos."

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Sophia Lindfield, a member of Nova Scotia's first youth climate council, says she felt tokenized by the provincial government, and she hopes future youth engagement is more meaningful.

The council is made up of people ages 14 to 24 from across Nova Scotia. From September to June, they met regularly with each other and government officials, including three meetings with Environment Minister Tim Halman.

In an email, the Department of the Environment said thepoint of the council is to "foster open communication between young Nova Scotians and government on climate matters, ensuring young voices are heard and their advice is seriously considered."

The Department of Environment gave $800,000 to the Clean Foundation, a local non-profit organization, to support the council for four years. Members each received a $500 honorarium.

Varying opinions

CBC News spoke with several members of the inaugural council, some of whom did not want to be named in this story, and heard mixed reviews aboutwhat was achieved.

By the end of her term, Lindfield said she concludedthe council existed only to allow the government to check a box. But others praised the program, sayingit left them believing meaningful change on climate issues is possible.

Some fell in the middle, expressing satisfaction with the opportunity to see how the government works, but uncertainty over whether their input was taken seriously.

Lindfield was not a stranger to environmental policy or government operations before she joined the council.

She studies part-time at Dalhousie University in the fields of political science and sustainability, while also working for a non-profit group that supports youth climate action. Not long before joining the council, Lindfield spent a year interning on Parliament Hill with the federal Green Party.

She said she was hopeful when she walked into the council's first meeting last fall, but had some misgivings.

"I do have, unfortunately, some pragmatism about how it works, engaging with government," she said.

"As a young person, it can definitely go a couple of different ways. I have had super-positive experiences, but unfortunately tokenization is pretty rampant in political circles, especially for youth climate activists."

Lindfield said she was repeatedly disappointed with responses from officials when she asked specific questions about government policy or programs.

"Instead we just got like a five-minute speech on just every single thing that the government had spent money on in regards to climate their entire term," she said.

Peter Oyedijo had a different take on his experience.

He said he applied to the council wanting to bring ideas to the government that would help tackle climate change. He thinks that's exactly what happened.

Oyedijo praised the Clean Foundation and the environment minister for making space for that.

Applying for a second term

Oyedijo, who works in student affairs at Cape Breton University, was particularly interested in advocating for better climate education. He said public school curriculum needs to integrate more information on the impacts of climate change, and teachers need training on the topic.

"It worked out really, really well," Oyedijo said in an interview, pointing to a visit from Education Minister Becky Druhan at one of the council's meetings.

He said there's still room to move that work forward, which is why he's applied for a second term.

The council has funding for another three years, and the Clean Foundation is accepting applications for the next group.

Lindfield said she's glad of that, but she wants Halman and the other officials involved with the council to approach future councils with a different mindset, and with a greater sense of urgency.

"We know that we have roughly five years at this point to be kind of taking meaningful action [on climate change] which is why I think it's important to be bringing up concerns or critiques," she said.

In an email to CBC, council member Chloe Duguaypraised the establishment of a youth climate bursary.

She said the council got off to a slow startas it created terms of reference. But she said they "hit the ground running"once they were established.

She said the council "allowed me to feel like my voice, and those of others in my community, were being taken seriously, and that change was possible, especially when it was youth-driven."

'We've taken action'

Halman, who was a high school teacher before entering politics, said the creation of the youth climate council came from a desire to give youth a role in the province's climate change response.

He said he chose the photo of the council for the front page of his progress report because it was "a key thing that came out of this year."

"There's now a formal platform for young people to engage with a minister, to be a part of that process, to give advice to the minister, and it's advice that I highly value," he said in an interview.

He said he was not surprised by the criticism that he was not seriously listening to council members. He chalked it up to a normal "diversity of opinion."

"We've taken action in terms of their recommendations," he said, pointing to the creation of the youth climate bursary.