The Prime Minister's Youth Council () is an advisory board created by the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, in 2016.
The council is a platform for youth in Canada aged 16 to 24 to provide non-partisan advice to the prime minister, cabinet ministers, and other officials on “key issues such as employment and education, building stronger communities as well as climate change and clean growth.” The stated purpose of the council is to provide opportunities for youth to influence policy by expressing themselves in their own voice, engaging directly with top government officials, to improve how the government understands and addresses the needs of Canada’s youth.
The council’s sixth cohort of 16 members concluded their terms in June 2025. The most recent application period for new members closed in April 2024. 70 young people have served as members on the council over the course of the initiative.
The council does not appear to have been active since the formation of the 30th Canadian Ministry on March 14, 2025, under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Inception and launch Creating a prime minister’s youth advisory council was a commitment put forward in the Liberal Party of Canada's platform during the 2015 Canadian federal election. Launching the council was further confirmed in Budget 2016, and Trudeau announced the call for applications to the council on Twitter on June 19, 2016, after which he fielded questions online. It was the first time he used social media to make a major announcement as Prime Minister.
The inaugural 15 members of the council were announced in September 2016, during Trudeau’s keynote speech at the One Young World Summit that was taking place in Ottawa at the same time as the Council’s first in-person meeting. According to a news release from the Prime Minister’s Office, over 14,000 people signed up to be considered for the council.
Timeline of activities and operations
Tenure of Justin Trudeau as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth From November 4, 2015 to July 18, 2018, Justin Trudeau held the cabinet portfolios of intergovernmental affairs and youth in addition to his chief position as Prime Minister of Canada. In this capacity he directly oversaw the council's operations, supported by the Privy Council Office.
From its launch up until the 2019 Canadian federal election, the council met in-person two to three times a year, with meetings that took place in locations across Canada, including Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal, St. John’s, Winnipeg, Toronto, Sherbrooke, and Iqaluit. Meetings included discussions with the Prime Minister, other ministers, parliamentary secretaries, other parliamentarians and senior government officials on various topics. Between in-person meetings, the council would meet via teleconference.
Peter Schiefke, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister (Youth), also attended in-person meetings, worked with council members and supported the prime minister in leading the council.
As part of in-person meetings, council members met and engaged with local youth groups, including youth of Kahnawake, the Premier’s Youth Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, students of Red River College, Fédération de la jeunesse canadienne-française, Sacred 7 Youth Council, and the Dialogue+ Project (Actions interculturelles). Meetings often included site visits to youth-serving organizations, such as Covenant House Toronto, and landmarks such as the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.
Council meetings occasionally took place around the same date and city as cabinet retreats, in Calgary and St John’s in 2017, and Sherbrooke in 2019. This provided opportunities for individual ministers to attend segments of meetings and hear from council members on their portfolio.
Tenure of Bardish Chagger as Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth Following the 2019 Canadian federal election, Bardish Chagger was named as the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, and directed to serve the council as Vice Chair, with Trudeau continuing to act as Chair of the council.
The council’s operations shifted to a predominantly virtual setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with roughy 17 virtual meetings during Minister Chagger’s 21-month tenure in this role. Work focused on collaborating with other youth to develop and deliver Canada's State of Youth Report, which was published in August 2021.
The council's activities became diminished from public prominence during this period, relative to the initial 2015-2019 period which saw regular in-person meetings across Canada. This was in part due to more virtual collaboration required by various pandemic-related restrictions, but also likely affected by the Trudeau government becoming embroiled in the WE Charity scandal, which implicated the government's record and credibility on its youth and student-related portfolios.
Tenure of Marci Ien as Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Youth After the 2021 Canadian federal election when a new cabinet was created, Marci Ien was sworn in as Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Youth. The council continued to work mostly virtually, with individual council members posting meeting recaps on the Government of Canada's youth-focused Instagram page to stay engaged with the public. The council returned to holding in-person meetings once per year in Ottawa in August 2022, August 2023, and May 2024.
Challenges, criticisms and results There were early criticisms that the online application process as well as virtual meetings posed a barrier to participation for youth in rural and remote parts of Canada, including Inuit youth, as Internet access is not widespread in Nunavut, Nunatsiavut, Nunavik and other Arctic areas of Canada. Trudeau stated that he will work with organisations to ensure all youth are connected during the initiative.
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