APEC Transportation Youth Forum
June 20-24, 1997, Victoria, British Columbia (Canada)

Transport Canada held the first APEC Transportation Youth Forum, June 20-22, 1997 at Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia. The Youth Forum brought together a total of 43 youth delegates: 25 Canadian participants, 19 university students and 6 young professionals currently working in the transportation field along with 18 APEC delegates. Fourteen economies out of a possible 17 APEC economies were represented at the Youth Forum.

Following the Youth Forum, the youth delegates joined their economy's delegation in Downtown Victoria for the remainder of the Ministerial (June 22-24) where they attended the Minister-Industry Symposium and the Industry Forum.

The goal of the Forum was to bring a youth perspective on transportation issues to APEC. The sessions were organized around two main themes: "Transportation Planning" and "Environmental Issues Related to Transportation". The youth presented their recommendations emerging from these sessions in a speech at the Minister-Industry Symposium luncheon to over 400 delegates. The speech ended with a strong challenge to APEC:

"We have identified the voice of youth as one that can contribute valuable, innovative solutions to problems in transportation. We have also identified concrete recommendations regarding greater communication and coordination, public involvement in decision making, standardization, and harmonization of technologies and policies. We challenge APEC member economies to act on these recommendations in policy development and implementation and to develop mechanisms to authentically integrate the voice of youth in the APEC process."