A group of Grade 6 students from Ecole Deer Meadow School had the chance to grill their elected officials when they paid town council a visit on April 14.According to their teacher, Allan Bouliane, students were learning about the role of local government and the trip gave them the chance to meet the mayor, councillors and to ask questions of local concern.“They took our visit seriously, answered all of our questions thoroughly, made everyone feel welcome and showed the students that although they are young, their opinions do matter,” Bouliane wrote in an email.Out of the approximately 50 students in attendance, seven stepped forward to ask questions of council. The topics included wheelchair-accessibility at the Olds Sports Complex, snow removal bylaw enforcement, doctor recruitment and community safety.Bouliane wrote that students were recently discussing matters of injustice or local concern facing Olds residents. They surveyed family members, brainstormed topics in class and submitted their results to council.Mayor Judy Dahl then invited the class to the meeting, he continued.“My primary objective for this trip was for students to hear some responses to the list of local issues or concerns we had previously shared with town council,” Bouliane wrote.Chinook's Edge School Division students have not always observed the best side of politicians.Last month, Speaker of the Alberta Legislature Gene Zwozdesky apologized to Innisfail Middle School after visiting students witnessed what was described as a rowdy session of question period last fall, fraught with rude behaviour from MLAs.However, Bouliane was never worried about what would happen at Olds council, noting that Dahl has visited his class in the past to answer student questions.“As well, given the absence of political parties at the local government level, I suspect that members of town council work more cooperatively with each other to meet the needs of citizens,” he wrote.“So, at no point in time did I anticipate any bickering or behaviour unbecoming of politicians from any member of our town council or town administration.”[email protected]
