Imagine tes transports! a competition showing teenagers
the way to show business

A new mini-feature competition aimed at 14 to 17-year olds
with Mariloup Wolfe as spokesperson

Montréal, November 17, 2008 – Earlier today, Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and Jour de la Terre Québec officials launched a new mini-feature competition, Imagine tes transports! The announcement was made at Berri-UQAM métro station and was attended by Pierre Lussier, Director – Jour de la Terre Québec, Marvin Rotrand, Vice-chairman – STM Board of directors, Mariloup Wolfe, competition spokesperson, Mario Turcotte, Director – Direction territoriale de l’Île-de-Montréal, and Transports Québec representative, Véronique Jampierre, Executive Director – FAQDD, Line Beauchamp, Minister – Développement durable, Environnement et Parcs, and by several other special guests.

The competition invites teenagers to create a script for a 30-second video that promotes public transportation while encouraging viewers to reflect upon the impact their transportation choices have on climate change.

A new direction
“Jour de la Terre is pleased to team up with the STM to promote public transportation use among teenagers,” declared Mr. Lussier. “We support meaningful actions taken in favour of the environment and, as such, we are convinced that our partnership with the STM will have positive benefits. Public transportation use must be encouraged by every means, particularly in a large city like Montréal, where a significant share of greenhouse gases and problems related to air quality are caused by vehicular traffic. And by having as popular a spokeswoman as Mariloup Wolfe, we feel certain this initiative will be successful!”

“The involvement shown for this initiative by Jour de la Terre and our other partners illustrates just how much public transportation is an essential component to any solutions we can bring to environmental problems,” indicated Mr. Rotrand. “Moreover, the competition provides an excellent opportunity for young people to think about their ability to make responsible choices and to channel their creativity toward sustainable transportation. We trust this initiative will speak to teenagers, and encourage them to become unconditional transit users.”

Métro, boulot, video !
The competition – made possible with the support of Transports Québec, the Fonds d’action québécois pour le développement durable (FAQDD) and VRAK.TV – is open to teenagers 14 to 17 years old living or studying in Montréal, and runs from November 17, 2008, to February 13, 2009. By logging on to Jour de la Terre’s website, teenagers can register today. Teachers and support staff are also invited to enter their classroom in the competition. To enter, students must write a script for a 30-second video dealing with their outlook on public transportation. The top three concepts will be selected by a jury composed of representatives from public transit corporations, environmental organizations and the television industry, including Jacques Languirand, well-known communications expert, Étienne Côté Paluck, materre.ca producer, and Frédéric Corbet, host of Premières Vues, a show about movies airing on the Vox channel. All three finalist scripts will be produced with the help of an experienced director and shown on the Web, where the public can vote for their favourite clip. The authors of the video with the most votes will then have their mini-feature produced professionally with Mariloup Wolfe. The winning mini-feature will be unveiled in August 2009 and will later air on VRAK.TV.

“Kids today use public transportation a lot, and they are the ones who will shape the future of our society. With this competition, we want to show them that they can make a difference through their actions, like choosing the bus or metro instead of a car. If everyone did their share, we could change things, and no one is in a better position than teenagers to spread the word to other teenagers!,” emphasized Mariloup Wolfe.

Action-packed from start to finish
Jour de la Terre will promote the competition, as part of a joint information campaign carried out with the STM. The campaign will make use of various media supports, including bus shelters, the STM website, the InfoSTM page featured in the Métro free daily, and Métrovision display screens. At the same time, beginning tomorrow, Jour de la Terre Québec will hold some fifteen seminars on the subject of climate change and will set up information stands in a number of high schools. During the lightning tour, students will receive an educational kit about climate change and public transportation, along with basic techniques for producing a mini-feature.

“This initiative will no doubt help make teenagers more aware of the impact their choice in transportation has on the environment and urban mobility. The Transport Minister is pleased, all the more so because this type of project is in line with the government’s considerable efforts these past few years to promote public and active means of transportation by way of Québec’s official policy on public transportation”, reminded Mario Turcotte.

Butterfly effect
For the FAQDD and its financial partner, the Québec government, being associated with the Imagine tes transports! competition follows on the heels of their Action-Climat programme, aimed at lowering GHG emissions in Québec by modifying our habits and behaviours, both as individuals and as a society. “By teaming up with Jour de la Terre and its partners, the FAQDD is confident that teenagers will buy into the campaign. By having students take part in the competition and think about the different solutions within reach to resolve climate change issues, we hope they will adopt their own significant changes in behaviour over the long run,” pointed out FAQDD’s Ms. Jampierre.

“Because small actions can, in the end, have a big effect, making the population aware of current solutions in the fight against climate change is of the utmost importance. It is the very essence of our Action-Climat programme, one that encourages innovative projects such as Imagine tes transports! to help reduce GHG emissions. Moreover, the competition’s theme is rather well-chosen, as 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Québec are produced by the transportation sector. I believe that this type of initiative, one that helps bring about a change in behaviour, will encourage public transit use, one of our top priorities. I also believe that by betting on our teenagers’ creative energy and ability to provoke change, we are making sure the odds are in our favour when confronting this collective challenge,” declared Minister Line Beauchamp.

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