Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I got a bit of a win from the Minister of ECE about looking into lowering the voting age for the Education Act, which covers our school boards, but I think this step is also appropriate at the community level. My question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Is she willing to support our youth and lower the voting age for municipal elections? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the voting age was reduced in Canada in 1970 from age 21 to 18, there have been many attempts to lower the age voting group, including recent discussions nationally about the federal elections. In the Northwest Territories, this has not been brought to us as a concern from NWTAC, but it doesn't stop us from having that discussion. I will be meeting with NWTAC this weekend. We will be discussing topics around elections in the Northwest Territories, and I will bring this up at that table. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, I have canvassed this with a few mayors and a few communities, and I think there is a mixed response. I think one of the solutions there is just simply give our municipalities more control over their elections and more control over residency requirements, age requirements, or how they want to run their own elections. As part of bringing this forward to the NWTAC, and I'm happy to hear that from the Minister, can the Minister also bring forward lowering the voting age to 16 or at least giving municipalities an option to make that choice themselves?
I will bring this up at the table, looking at lowering the voting age to 16, but I also want to just inform the Member that, as the Northwest Territories, we do recognize northern youth in politics. We do have the Northern Youth Parliament program here at the Legislative Assembly, and also MACA does provide leadership opportunities for our surrounding communities. Not only that, we do also get into the schools, as well, and look at how we can further support our young people and encourage them into career choices and also looking at the appropriate programming. I am open to looking at innovative, different ideas and looking at pursuing that. Should our youth want to pursue further education in political science, maybe that could be something that our department could possibly work with stakeholders throughout the territory on and possibly look at some opportunities for our young people in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
