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The case for a Youth Climate Corps in Canada [1]

['Seth Klein']

Date: 2021-06-01

The climate mobilization in Canada, as I’ve written in previous columns, has yet to feel like a grand societal undertaking. Among the bold initiatives that would send such a signal — a Youth Climate Corps. As young people come to the end of a school year unlike any before, and those in their teens and early 20s wrestle with the prospects of a dismal job market, post-secondary institutions still reeling with post-pandemic realities and, looming over it all, the escalating climate crisis, now would be a very good time to offer an ambitious new opportunity for those looking for something hopeful and meaningful. The economic and mental health impacts of the COVID pandemic have been especially hard on young people, and those impacts are likely to have a long lag. David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, notes the summer of 2021 is looking grim for the youth job market, with 123,000 fewer jobs for young men and 184,000 fewer jobs for young women than in the month before the pandemic. Get daily news from Canada's National Observer Generally the last hired and first fired, economist Jim Stanford notes that “26 per cent of workers under 30 lost their jobs in the first two months of the pandemic, compared to 12 per cent of workers older than 30.” The subsequent rebound in employment “has been much weaker for young workers. More than two-thirds of all remaining job losses (relative to pre-pandemic levels) are among workers under 30, even though they account for barely one-fifth of the working age population… This summer the pandemic still rages, but there are no targeted benefits for young workers.”

But it’s not just the job numbers. Stanford worries young people will likely suffer the worst long-term social and economic consequences from the pandemic. “Young Canadians are experiencing an epidemic of suicide, substance abuse and eating disorders that rivals the coronavirus in ferocity; health officials have declared a youth mental health emergency. Disrupted schooling has held back educational progress at all levels, with lasting ramifications for students’ learning and future employment.” Young people are struggling (not least with the mental anxiety of climate distress). And our leaders can and should step up to help. “An ambitious strategy to help young people rebuild their lives when this is all over is a vital prerequisite for long-term economic and social recovery,” concludes Stanford. “Governments need to think big and move fast to support young workers.” Alberta just stepped on a rake — again Agreed. And an audacious Youth Climate Corps — a youth mobilization to confront today’s gravest threat — could be just the solution.

It sure would have been nice if we’d been preparing for this over the last year. Not to mention if the Trudeau government hadn’t made such a hash of potential youth programs with the WE scandal. It is deeply frustrating that a year ago the government opted to contract out the delivery of a bold youth program when the federal and provincial governments already had numerous youth service, training and employment programs in place, perfectly able to scale up if the funding had been made available. In contrast to the hand wringing of the present, consider how youth signed up in response to a previous existential threat, and how the government encouraged and supported their efforts. A youth climate corps could be just the ticket to Canada's fight against climate change and #COVID recovery, @natobserver columnist @sethDKlein writes. #cdnpoli In the Second World War, over one million Canadians enlisted for military service from a population at the time of about 11.5 million, a remarkable level of participation, particularly given what those who signed up were prepared to sacrifice. Of those who went to fight overseas, from all corners of the country and all ethnic backgrounds, the overriding characteristic most had in common was their youth — about 64 per cent of the Canadians who enlisted during the Second World War were under the age of 21. Back then, when young people stepped up to serve, our government was eager to receive them (even when, in the early years, the readiness of the training programs was still being hurriedly patched together). Today, young people would surely jump at the chance to meet this new generational moment. As the world has begun to confront the climate crisis, the last few years have seen a burgeoning of youth leadership. As in the war, youth are once again mobilizing to secure our collective future. But so far, our governments have failed to create public programs to accept and deploy their energies and talents. The good news for today is that the crises we must confront call upon us to help and to heal — both society and the planet — rather than to fight and kill.

Canada needs a new youth corps, focused on the helping and healing work required to tackle the climate emergency. Not a compulsory form of youth service, as still exists in some countries, but an attractive one. The closest such program we have is Katimavik, a federal youth program created under the government of Pierre Trudeau (and at one time chaired by Justin Trudeau) that has been operating off and on since the late 1970s, which has placed more than 35,000 young people into community service volunteer work. But Katimavik is only a half-year program with just a handful of spots available each year. More recently, the federal government initiated the Canada Service Corps, but it, too, is a relatively small program that merely offers short-term volunteer opportunities to young people. Last year, in the early months of the pandemic, the environmental NGO Wildsight partnered with the City of Nelson, B.C., in the Kootenays and created a Youth Climate Corps (yes, they even used the same name I’m proposing). It looks like an inspiring program that combines climate-related education and field work. But again, it is a tiny initiative, only able to offer a little over a dozen placements.

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[1] Url: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/06/01/opinion/case-youth-climate-corps-canada

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