He was hired to fight for Wales's future generations. Does Canada need a job like that?
CBC
For the last three years, Derek Walker has been challenging the Welsh government to consider the following: How will your decisions affect people born in Wales as far as 50 years from now?
As his country's future generations commissioner, Walker's tasked with advocating for the rights of Wales's youngest and beyond — and making sure their interests are considered in decision-making.
"Why should we be leaving the problems of today for our children and our grandchildren to fix when we could be fixing them today?" Walker said. "It's not fair for us to be taking advantage and leaving them to fix the problems we could be fixing ourselves."
Walker's job was born out of Wales's pioneering Well-being of Future Generations Act, which passed in 2015. The act sets out seven goals for the country, including "a healthier Wales" and "a more equal Wales" as well as 50 national indicators to measure progress.
Since taking on the role, Walker said he's pushed the Welsh government to take stronger actions on cleaning up river pollution and making Wales's food system more sustainable. But he's most proud of his work on getting public sector bodies to commit to a real living wage.
"That's going to make a massive difference in people's pockets and do something very important to address endemic levels of poverty right across our country," Walker said.
There's no shortage of issues facing Canada's youngest generations today. On top of high unemployment and affordability challenges, they're grappling with the effects of a changing climate and rapidly advancing artificial intelligence.
With all those issues, Canadian advocates say it's time the federal government appoint a champion for Canada's youngest.
At St. Mother Teresa High School in Ottawa, Grade 8 students are thinking long and hard about their futures — and the challenges they face.
Nayah Tarpeh, 13, wants to be a teacher when she grows up. But, she said, "if you're just going to university, that's one expense. If you go to teacher's college, that's another expense."
"I'm mostly worried about school prices, about university, because I'm scared that [even] if I get a scholarship.… Me or my parents won't be able to afford it because it's over-the-top expensive."
Dimitri Conistis, also 13, said he's worried about grocery prices. He hears about food costs on the news and at home, and he feels like "you're getting less for your money and the prices are going up."
Their teacher, 31-year-old Katie Richmyre, said she's been thinking about why her students have all these worries.
"It's social media, right? They're seeing it, they're hearing it. Their parents are millennials, and they're talking about the struggles that they're having," Richmyre said.
People who use the Indigenous-led overnight shelter on the edge of downtown Winnipeg are weighing their next steps after learning the facility is set to shut down, but Manitoba's premier says nobody will get left behind.
An 81-year-old man from Prince County has died after a single-vehicle crash on Route 14 near Christopher Cross, police say.
The B.C. government has raised the ceiling to $75,000 for potential damages over intimate-image abuse.
A man was found dead inside a house on Elm Street in Niagara Falls after it caught fire on Wednesday night, police say.
It’s been eight days since Suncor’s Sarnia refinery reported an oil spill into the St. Clair River, and it remains unclear what caused the pipeline leak, how much got into the water — and where cleanup efforts are at.
A joint operation involving Edmonton police has led to the deportation of two men, over what police say is a wave of extortions targeting the city's South Asian community.
Red Lake is hoping a petition will help it land federal funding for a new arena.
An N.W.T. MLA says the territory needs to fiercely protect treaty rights and territorial waters, amid Alberta’s merger of two major river basins, and the proposed treatment and release of oilsands tailings into the environment.
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments against the Liberal government's deeply controversial decision to outlaw certain firearms.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting Opposition accusations of entitlement for using a private jet last fall courtesy of the Saudi government.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s department of Transportation and Infrastructure is promising policy changes after a Conception Bay South family spoke out about the expropriation and resale of the land where their home once stood.
Nova Scotia’s seniors and long-term care minister is calling on administrators at nursing homes to make direct appeals to their employees amidst protracted contract talks with the union representing workers at more than 50 sites.
A pair of Saint John poverty researchers have told N.B. Power's rate hearing that rising electricity prices are a serious affordability problem for low-income households and the utility or provincial government should match programs in place elsewhere that would help.