Kids Have Questions

On November 20th, a portion of the Children and Youth Planning Table meeting was dedicated to answering questions young people submitted to us through email and social media. When we asked young people to send their questions, we were overwhelmed with the amazing response. Truthfully, we thought we might receive about 10, but we actually received over 140!

Questions came from a wide age group (between 4 and 18+) and we thought that some of the questions were fun and silly, others were thoughtful and challenging, but they were all worth answering. We feel a big responsibility to the young people who took the time to ask these questions and want to ensure that each one is answered in a meaningful way.

Curious about the questions? Have a look below and stay tuned for some of the answers.

A message for Adult allies:

Are you able to help by answering some of these questions? We’d love to hear from you! Please email Margie McLean for more information.

Kids Have Questions for the Mayor (or municipal government):

Are you able to help the poor?
Can you ban plastic water bottles?
How can we stop people from vandalizing because it makes us upset when we see damage to our community and school.
How do you decide how much money community centres get?
How do you make a budget for community recreation centres without picking favourites?
Why don’t we have a trout farm in Cambridge??
I know that two years ago during the counsellor for a day contest there was an idea to help homeless people more often, are we going to take action? If so, how soon?
What are going to do for poor people?
What are the main ingredients in money?
What are you going to do to help people in need?
What are you gonna do about the tax prices?
What are your plans for Cambridge?
What do you think is most important in your daily work?
What inspired you to become mayor?
What is the hardest part to budget for you?
What were you before you became mayor?
What will you do as Mayor to make our world a better place?
When do you have breaks?
Why did you add the LRT? Do you think it’s a good idea?
Would you rather give a baby a hug or kiss them?
Will you everything we ask you to?

Kids Have Questions for the Prime Minister:

What is your favourite food?
Is your job difficult
What is your opinion on Trump?
Are you going to raise taxes again?
Can you grow more trees?
Do you get to choose how much money you make?
Do you know any famous people personally?
How are you going to make sure that each and every citizen of Canada is treated equally? How can we know that Canadian citizens will each be treated with respect, no matter what race or age they are?
How do you decide who gets what amount of money for recreation programs?
What actions are you going to take against climate change this term?
What are you doing to make youth mental health better?
What are you going to do about climate change?
What are you going to do about global warming?
What are you going to do to make post-secondary affordable?
What are you going to do with the population and financial problems of the North American region? The federal party is using our money, and the population is way too large in Canada.
What are your thoughts on the class sizes, do you agree or disagree?
What party would you rather work with, NDP or la Bloc Quebecois?
What do Prime Ministers take in school?
What is funding like for schools in the future?
What will you do as Prime Minister to make the world better and fight for this country?
What’s the highest you would raise taxes?
Why aren’t you doing anything about tap water contamination?
Why do you have so much money?
What is your favourite thing in the country?
Why do you not just ban single-use plastic now?
Do you like unicorns?
Can my family come live with you?

Questions for the Premier of Ontario (or Provincial Government):

What is your favourite food?
Is your job difficult?
Are you going to raise taxes again?
Can you grow more trees?
Do you get to choose how much money you make?
Do you know any famous people personally?
How do you decide who gets what amount of money for recreation programs?
What actions are you going to take against climate change this term?
What are you doing to make youth mental health better?
What are you going to do about climate change?
What are you going to do about global warming?
What are you going to do to make post-secondary affordable?
What is funding like for schools in the future?
What’s the highest you would raise taxes?
Why do you have so much money?
What is your favourite thing in the country?
Why do you not just ban single-use plastic now?
Do you like unicorns?

Kids Have Questions for the CYPT:

Can we have more programs?
Could there be more programs than there is now?
What can I participate in? How can I get involved? Are there kids in the CYPT?
How are you planning on getting youth and children to talk about mental health?
How are you raising awareness of youth drug and alcohol abuse?
How do get our toys?
How do grownups get money from work?
How do you decide what programs to run and for who?
How do you fundraise enough money for programs?
How do you make recreation affordable for families who struggle with money?
How do you work with the community to meet the needs of youth?
How is the CYPT run?
How much does the CYPT help children and youth?
What is the plan for homeless youth?
What type of stuff do you plan?
Why are counselling services hard to find?
Why can’t we have more breaks?
Why do grown-ups have to work every hour?
Why do my classes need to have so many kids in them?
Why do we have more homework and the same teacher?
Why do we have school?
Why is there not enough money for youth programs and recreation?

Questions for anyone:

Do you like unicorns?
How can our community reduce homelessness?
How can we encourage people to drive fossil fuel-powered cars less?
How do you get our toys?
How do grownups get money from work?
How do you decide who gets to come to one program instead of another?
If our region started recycling, then why are there still people who don’t recycle?
What are we doing locally/provincially/federally to fight climate change?
Why are clothing stores organized by gender, and not just size?
Why are there no Haudenosaunee flags in Kitchener?
Why are there still some sports for only girls or boys?
Why can’t we build houses out of stuff that we can find in space (space junk) rather than cutting down trees?
Why can’t we fuel a car using trash/compost?
Why can’t we have more breaks?
Why can’t we have more rooftop gardens, farms, plant-life?
Why can’t we build houses out of stuff that we can find in space (space junk) rather than cutting down trees?
Why can’t we fuel a car using trash/compost?
Why can’t we have more rooftop gardens, farms, plant-life?
Why do grown-ups have to work every hour?
Why do trees like bad air?
Why do we allow some world leaders such as the North Korean president, to starve people for control/lead through violence?
Why do we allow things that are not eco-friendly?
Why do we even make things like alcohol, cigarettes, vaping things, if we know they’re bad for us?
Why do we have mansions?
Why do we have only one Earth Day?
Why does Canada treat Indigenous people so bad?
Why does money exist?
Why does our age in January determine what grade we’re in?
Why don’t we have more farms, so we have more food sources?
Why don’t companies hire homeless people?
Why don’t we have more farms, so we have more food sources?
Why is ringette not an Olympic sport?
Why is the weekend Saturday and Sunday, and not two other days, such as Tuesday and Thursday?
It was a PD day this past Friday so my mom and I had gone out for lunch at Wendy’s where we met a homeless man who was sleeping upright because he had been out in the cold at night with no shelter from the cold and unable to sleep. We gave him some money and bought him some food and talked to him. He had some very interesting things to tell us about his life and he was very kind. I want to know what we are doing to help people like him so that they have a warm place to sleep at night?”
How do you make sand storms in the desert?
Why does a red light mean stop?
Would you give me a unicorn?
How can you make sure that the voices of youth who show up matter as much as the adult’s?
How will you build relationships with us to motivate us to show up [get engaged]?
How can you make the environment safer for us to participate?
Why do people not get along?
How do you choose the programs for the CYPT?
How can I choose the right program?

Questions for our Schools:

Can French kids get more science/English and put math back to french?
Can we have more periods of English and science for the french immersion kids and change math back to french; as it is hard to remember the terms in English?
Can we have more periods of English and science for the french immersion kids?
English kids seem to be getting more time for every subject than French kids. They are getting 3 hours of Science each week, while French kids are only getting 2 and a half. We also get less English time than they do. Is it possible to take away a few of our French periods for Science or English?
The English kids at most schools do more math than the french kids. Is it possible to give the french kids more math and less french? Also, keep math in English!!!
Why are there so many schools right down the street from each other sometimes?
Why can there not be a 4-day school/work week?
Why can’t school be four days per week with an extra hour and a half each day to make up the difference?
Why can’t there be more subjects such as pottery, sculpting, ice hockey, swimming etc. at school?
Why can’t we learn in a different environment eg., forest, desert, etc.?
Why can’t we combine elementary and secondary schools?
Why can’t you choose who’s in your class, and who your teacher is?
Why is the school day only 6 hours long?
How do you access after school programs? Are they in Cambridge too?
How can you make school more exciting so I want to go every day?
Why does recess get taken away as punishment when kids have trouble sitting still in school when we really just need to go outside and run?
Would we be able to get more funding for field trips (especially for intermediates)?
Why is university so expensive?
Why do we have school?
Why do elementary schools not have a cafeteria?
Why couldn’t we have flexible hours/days at school?
Why do some schools go to grade 6, some to grade 8 etc.?
Why do we have more homework and the same teacher?
What are your plans for high schools?
Why don’t we have a crossing guard at Dando ave and Water Street?
What is the point in rotary in Grade 7/8?
Why does our age in January determine what grade we’re in?