Residents joined members of the Sustainable Orillia Youth Council on Friday afternoon to encourage local governments to do more to fight climate change.
The event was a part of Fridays for Future, a youth-led global movement that is calling on governments and municipalities to act on the climate crisis and ecological breakdown.
One of the local event’s organizers, Weiqi Xu, a Grade 11 Twin Lakes Secondary School student, says the group of about six students want to push the City of Orillia to not expand its boundaries and to make sustainability safe and more affordable, while also creating a more ambitious climate change plan.
“We want a more science-based plan - one that will be effective and puts people over profit," he explained.
Xu says learning about climate change at school and the impacts it will have on the future inspired him to take action.
“I want a future that would be able to be lived in with a family,” he said. “I want to keep the life that we are living.”
By being out front of city hall with signs and support from adults, Xu is hopeful the city sees that youth care.
“I think the city thinks we exist,” he said. “As to whether or not they actually take action from our words, that’s arguable.”
One of Xu’s classmates, Blythe Wieclawek, is the president of the Sustainable Orillia Youth Council. She encourages more local youth to get involved with the cause.
“The youth council is a really easy way for high school students to have the support and resources they need to make the initiatives that they want to see happen in their own community,” she said. “We have a whole team of like-minded community people here who care about the environment and want to help.”
Wieclawek says everybody should be concerned with making a more sustainable environment, but youth, in particular, have a vital role to play in creating change. She also says youth should be consulted before environmental decisions are made by politicians.
“This is our future,” she said. “We are directly affected and will be living in these communities in the future.”
About 20 people were on hand to support Wieclawek and her classmates during Friday’s demonstration.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “People in this city care and are willing to put pressure on our local municipality. It just shows that they are paying attention and listening to things being proposed in our city.”
More information about the Sustainable Orillia Youth Council can be found here.
