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Dear Friend,
With the Legislature now taking a one-week pause following Friday's
tabling of the 2021/22 Budget, we wanted to bring you an update
highlighting some of the work our Green MLAs have been doing for all
of us.
 The government tabled its 2021 Operating Budget on Friday. While the budget
includes some good things, it also reflects the same lack of overall
vision (and the same vagueness) that we saw with the Throne Speech,
and crucially, it leaves out relief for many of those hit hardest by
the pandemic: low-income Islanders, essential and frontline workers,
seniors, and students.
Peter Bevan-Baker said of the budget: "This
government has proven over the past two years that it can tell a good
story. It has also shown it cannot keep the promises it makes.
Islanders do not need another smoke and mirrors act from the
storyteller Premier and his government. COVID laid bare the real
issues impacting Islanders, and this budget was an opportunity to
address them with real solutions. Once again, government chose story
over substance."
>>Read more: Official Opposition reacts to smoke and mirrors
budget
The Green Caucus will have more to say about the budget next week
when the Legislature resumes to go over the budget line-by-line.
Some good news in the budget:
-
Free shingles vaccines for seniors starting January
2022 (something our caucus had asked for);
-
Increased supports for people with diabetes (also a
Green request);
- More childcare spaces and more front-line staff in Island
schools;
-
An electric vehicle incentive program (something
we've been asking for for a long time!);
-
Money for a Rural Transit pilot (hopefully
progressing soon to much more than a mere pilot);
- More money for primary care and to recruit and retain
nurses;
- Extending the School Food Program to students through the
summer.
We'll be looking for more details on some of the other initiatives
announced by the government, such as the Energy Efficiency Equipment
Program and Land Protection Fund.
See the Official Opposition's full list of budget requests here.
Last week, we brought you Peter Bevan-Baker's, Lynne Lund's, Karla Bernard's and Ole Hammarlund's responses to the
Speech from the Throne. Today, we bring you the remaining responses
from Hannah Bell, Trish Altass,
Michele Beaton and Steve
Howard.
Hannah Bell focusses her response on
the things that loom large on PEI but were scarcely mentioned in the
Throne Speech: poverty, the struggles of people living with
disabilities, the housing crisis and precarious workers - and actually
lays out some suggested actions that the government could be taking to
address those issues right now.
Click here to read Hannah Bell's response to
the Throne Speech, and for the link to the video
recording.
The Green Party's Health & Wellness Critic,
Trish Altass used her response to
the Throne Speech to take the government to task for the wide gulf
between what Islanders need and what the government has promised on
the one hand, and what the government has actually done about it on
the other hand. She speaks of the need for an integrated health care
system, rather than the disjointed approach currently prevalent in
PEI.
Click here to read Trish Altass' response to the
Throne Speech, and for the link to the video
recording.
Michele Beaton opens her response by speaking
about the incredibly important role that farmers and the agriculture
industry could be playing in other key priorities, such as tourism,
and how we should be supporting farmers to help PEI reach our climate
goals, saying that agriculture is one of the most cost-effective and
efficient ways to sequester carbon (while simultaneously building the
soil, increasing yields and reducing costs).
She went on to speak about the importance of building an economy
that supports workers (including front-line health care workers), and
expresses scepticism that the government's move to drastically cut
business taxes is the best way to support and increase the
competitiveness of small businesses, not to mention whether it will
truly trickle down to support workers. She also asks whether it is
time for Prince Edward Island, which has one of the most generous tax
regimes for high-income earners in this country, to have a look at our
income tax system and how to make it more progressive.
Click here to read Michele Beaton's response to the
Throne Speech, and for the link to the video
recording.
In his response, Steve Howard implored
the government to remember that more Islanders voted to reform our
electoral system in 2016 and 2019 than voted for any single party in
the Legislature, and to take action to reform our voting system so
that more collaborative politics becomes the norm and not the
exception. He also, like many of the other Green MLAs, pushed back
against the Premier's characterization of his agenda as "evolutionary,
not revolutionary", saying that we have major issues to deal with that
do indeed require a more "revolutionary" approach, imploring the
Premier to return to the "moon shot" mindset he had shown earlier in
his term.
Click here to read Steve Howard's response to the
Throne Speech, and for the link to the video
recording.
 Holding ponds
Last Friday, Lynne Lund once again
grilled the government on its decision to ignore the Water Act
recommendations of the Natural Resources Committee (which were based
on months of work and consultations with experts and stakeholders by
the committee), when it decided to permanently grandfather
holding ponds from the requirement to be compliant with the
Water Act. In this, Lund had an ally in PC caucus member Cory
Deagle, who chairs the Natural Resources Committee and is
equally unimpressed by Environment Minister Steven
Myers' disregard for the work of the committee. This led to
some strange remarks from Myers, in which he compared the committee to
Maggie, the baby from The Simpsons, and himself to Marge,
saying that he's the one "driving the car".
See "P.E.I. environment minister downplays
recommendations on Water Act"
See "Green, PC MLAs question new minister on changes
to P.E.I.'s Water Act"
 Housing
Tenants - and Greens - have long been calling for a
Rental Registry that would enable tenants and authorities to better
monitor whether some landlords are illegally raising rents by more
than the annual allowable rates set by IRAC.
Housing Minister Brad Trivers has said
that the government would create a rental registry, but renters are
keen to see action this time. Hannah Bell pressed the
minister for a timeline, but unfortunately he could not provide
one.
See "'Tenants want to see action': P.E.I.
rental registry taking too long, says
tenant"
Michele Beaton also pressed the government on
housing issues, asking what it plans to do to tackle the rising cost
of homes, and what progress it is making towards the introduction of a
Vacancy Tax - a measure introduced in some other jurisdiction with
housing shortages, which ensures that secondary, non-seasonal
residences are being used for housing. The Greens first asked about
this more than a year ago. While the Minister of Finance responded
that she supports the idea, she also said that "we're not there yet"
without offering a timeline for getting there.
See "Green MLA wants government to introduce vacancy tax
on P.E.I."
On a related note, Michele Beaton introduced a motion calling for the Island Regulatory
and Appeals Commission (IRAC) to be made an independent body
responsible to the Legislature, instead of to the Education Minister
and Cabinet alone, as is currently the case. IRAC is responsible for
regulating utilities, fuel prices and matters of land use and
acquisition, regulating the rental marker and hearing appeals of
decisions under various statutes. Michele's motion argues
that reporting directly to the Legislative Assembly would enhance
legislators’ understanding of IRAC and empower members of the
Legislature to better support the Commission’s work.
 Youth
Karla Bernard re-introduced her bill to
lower the voting age to 16, and it is currently in
committee. Hopefully we'll see this move forward soon.
Lynne Lund asked the Premier in Question Period
when he planned to re-activate the Premier's Youth
Council, which has not met since before the 2019 election,
and what he is doing to ensure that youth have direct input in the
provinces recovery plans.
Earlier this month, Karla Bernard and Lynne
Lund introduced a motion calling on the Legislature to express
appreciation for the contributions Island youth have made to keeping
their communities safe, and to better support them during and after
this challenging time. One way to do this would be by re-instating a
moratorium on student loan payments.
See "Green MLA wants government to reinstate
moratorium on student loan repayments"
 Elder Care
Our MLAs have been advocating for better supports and more dignity
for Island seniors. On March 4th, Trish Altass
introduced a motion calling for the Department of Health and
Wellness to support PEI seniors to age in place (i.e. in their own
homes), by expanding public home care services such
as the Caring for Older Adults in the Community and at Home (COACH)
program, and creating a seniors care benefit for
caregivers of seniors on PEI.
On March 10th, Peter Bevan-Baker pressed the
government to act to increase the staffing levels at nursing
homes, noting that many are falling below the mandated
minimum hours of care and thereby causing significant deterioration of
many seniors' quality of life. He also asked the government what it is
doing to re-balance funding between institutional care and
home care, enabling more Island seniors to age in their own
homes as many would love to be able to do.
See "Long-term care facilities need more staff,
Opposition says"
Ole Hammarlund, the most "senior" Member of the
Legislature, noted some of the progressive seniors care models in his
birth country of Denmark, designed to enable seniors to remain in
their own homes for longer and to live with more autonomy and dignity
in care homes, and asked the government whether it was looking to
these kinds of progressive changes.
 Mobile Mental Health Units
There have been a number of questions about the way in which the
government is going about the introduction of mobile mental health
crisis units on PEI. While the government claimed that it was using an
evidence-based approach to design the units, Trish
Altass questioned that, pointing to the fact that the
government consulted with a grand total of four people from the same
family for a perspective on "lived experience", and ignored expert
recommendations against a police-led model for the units.
The Opposition has also raised questions about the government's
decision to hand over management to a private organization, Island
EMS - a move that also caught nurses, who will be working in the
units, by surprise.
See "Opposition parties pummel government over
'privatization' of mobile mental-health units"
See "Mobile mental-health crisis teams will include
police officers"
 Supported Decision-making
Supported decision making (SDM) is a tool that allows people with
disabilities to retain their decision-making capacity by choosing
supporters to help them make choices. A person using SDM selects
trusted advisors, such as friends, family members, or professionals,
to serve as supporters. The supporters agree to help the person with a
disability understand, consider, and communicate decisions, giving the
person with a disability the tools to make her own, informed,
decisions.
Currently, P.E.I. does not have a legislative framework for
supported decision-making - something Peter
Bevan-Baker is hoping to change. According to Peter, the
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
instructs our governments to make sure that adults with disabilities
have whatever supports they need to enjoy their legal capacity. Yet,
after 10 years or promises by government, we still do not have a
supported decision-making framework on PEI.
Have a great March break! Until next time!
Green Party of PEI
http://www.greenparty.pe.ca/
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