Sarah Rennie – LJI reporter
The council room at the town hall in Ormstown has a new chair.
Three students from Ormstown Elementary School presented members of the municipal council with a colourful and highly symbolic Generations’ Chair during the regular meeting on July 8.
The chair, which was designed by Cassandra Bryson, Abby Sauvé, and Livia Banning, with help from teacher David Rosenbaum, will now permanently sit in the council room as a reminder to municipal leaders that decisions made today will impact future generations.
“We wanted this chair to capture the many parts of our community and share our vision for a better future,” explain the students, in a note addressed to council members that details the different elements of their design.
The chair features a rainbow to represent the LGBTQIA2S+ members of the community, while the addition of flowers and butterflies serves to remind leaders of their relationship with nature and their responsibility to make choices with this in mind. A nesting pair of hands was included to represent intergenerational links within families and the community, while the orange uprights recall that “Every Child Matters” and speak to the importance of recognition and reconciliation with First Nation neighbours. Lastly, the chair introduces the notion of “people over profits,” which promotes an interest in a culture of communal care and reciprocity over individualism.
Ormstown mayor Christine McAleer initiated the project after learning of the Generations’ Chair movement while watching an interview with Quebec City mayor Bruno Marchand, whose team came up with the concept in 2021. The idea was to symbolically add a place around the executive committee table to represent the expectations of future generations.
The project has since been promoted by the Mothers Step In movement, or Mères au front, that unites mothers and grandmothers across Canada to demand concrete government action to protect children from the impacts of climate change. Over 90 municipalities, mainly across Quebec, have been gifted Generations’ Chairs by children within their communities.
McAleer says the chair and all it symbolizes is in line with many of the council’s priorities. “When the council meets, they keep in mind that they are working for future generations, especially when decisions concern the environment,” she says.
“We have tried, especially when we redid all of our urban planning bylaws, to keep the environment in mind and to promote it in the future development of the town,” McAleer explains, noting the council aims to make changes in a rational way while keeping the environment and the quality of life for both current and future residents at the forefront.