YCCBC's Executive Director: Canada Needs A Nation-Building Project For Youth.

This BC Day, Youth Climate Corps BC Executive Director Ben Simoni joined Mike Smyth on The Mike Smyth Show to explore the question: Does Canada need a nation-building project for youth?

With youth unemployment climbing across the country, especially in British Columbia, Ben and Mike discuss how taking inspiration from the legacy of programs like Katimavik and expanding the Youth Climate Corps could offer a meaningful solution to the employment challenges facing Canada's next generation.

Read some highlights from their conversation below, and listen to the full 15-minute interview here.

Mike Smyth: Let's talk about the program you're involved with, Ben Youth Climate Corps BC You're the executive director there. Can you tell us about this program?

Ben Simoni: [YCCBC] is similar to Katimavik in some fundamental ways, but we do operate a little bit differently. So we aim to keep young people in their communities, and we pay them a living wage for the work that is being done, compared to a volunteer program that covers expenses.

Simoni: The programs are typically four to six months long, and part of the reason we're able to expand and run the program at this scale is because we received a $3 million grant from the province two budgets ago. What we've seen is really tremendous excitement for the program. Most programs, we have about eight times the number of applicants that we can serve.

Listen to the full interview here.