Organizers of the Youth Ask Grey Bruce All Candidates Town Hall planned for Saturday May 26th are offering $10 travel bursaries to youth carpooling from outside Owen Sound. The all candidates town hall is funded through a grant from the Laidlaw Foundation for groups encouraging civic engagement in youth aged 14-29. The Youth Ask organizers wanted to present youth voices to the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound provincial candidates in a non-partisan structure and remove as many barriers as possible from youth participation. 

The group has already engaged the community by collecting questions from young constituents. They plan to make the event more accessible by offering childcare and activities for kids to encourage attendance by young families, by live streaming and recording the event for constituents who can't attend, and by offering travel bursaries to help people come from the furthest corners of the riding.

"We know that this riding is huge and that not everyone can afford the gas to come all the way to Owen Sound", said Jon Farmer - one of the co-organizers of the event. "We're hoping that offering some gas money will help people overcome one of the barriers to participation and encourage more people to come with their friends and family".

Youth interested in receiving one of the travel bursaries simply need to demonstrate that they came with multiple people and that they live outside of Owen Sound. The town hall will run from 1-3pm on Saturday, May 26th at the First United Church in Owen Sound. Constituents of all ages are welcome to attend but all questions will come from constituents between 14 and 29 years old. The event will end with a short information session to introduce first time voters to the registration and voting processes. You can find out more about the event at the group's Facebook page titled YOUTH ASK TOWN HALL: All Candidates Meeting. Information about the live stream will be available on the Facebook page on the day of the event.