About the Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities
The PCYO is a 25-member group of young professionals and leaders, ages 16 to 25+. They give advice to the Premier and the Minister of Children and Youth Services on issues affecting youth and work within their local communities to make sure youth voices are considered in government decision-making.
Overview
The Council’s mandate is to advise the government on how to improve:
- outcomes for all youth, especially those that are at-risk or typically don’t work with government
- programs and services to better meet the needs of diverse youth across the province
Budget Talks 2016-17
Under their mandate, the Council has been asked to assess the feasible project proposals submitted through Budget Talks. The project proposals were reviewed by government to unsure that they were feasible and within the province’s ability to implement.
A total of 126 projects were determined to be feasible and were submitted to the Council for review. At its January meeting, Council members worked in small review teams, and as a group, to reach a decision.
The Council’s criteria included:
- youth outcomes
- at-risk communities
- social inclusion
- and increased access to services.
From the initial list, 33 projects were recommended by the Council for further consideration by the Minister of Finance.
Based on those recommendations the Minister selected a few ideas from each category to be put forward for public voting.