Sask. high school students debate vape use during mock session at legislature

High school students sat in the legislature chamber for a mock debate on whether flavoured vape products should be banned. Wayne Mantyka has more.

A group of Saskatchewan high school students debated whether flavoured vape products should be banned in the province during a mock youth parliament session at the legislature earlier this week.

Currently, sale of flavoured vape products is restricted to adults-only in specialty vaping products stores.

The students called expert witnesses for advice, including doctors and organizations concerned about vaping.

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“We’ve been sharing recommendations with the government for a few years now around strategies to reduce smoking and vaping rates in the province, so we thought that the topic of youth vaping and flavoured vapes in particular would be relevant,” explained Carolyn Cyr of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

The session gave students the opportunity to experience what it’s like to be an MLA.

“Kind of more learning as we’re going and learning what it’s like as an MLA and the duties, and how we’re supposed to speak, and just different rules that are followed within the house,” Melfort student Josephina Hovdestad said.

Several MLAs were on hand to provide advice on legislative procedures, including the Speaker of the House, Todd Goudy.

“The main purpose is parliamentary procedure, for people to understand how government works, how the legislature here works and in doing so we picked a very relevant topic,” he said.

The students plan to prepare a report on their day of deliberations and present it to members of the legislature for future government policy consideration.