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Dear
Friend,
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| Ever a
trendsetter, Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker may just have
sparked a Sanders-esque mitten fashion craze as he was supporting the
Cows Ice Cream #MooLetsTalk Mental Health campaign last
month! |
Happy Easter and Passover, friends! We hope that you are well and
able to enjoy a few of your favourite traditions this year.
It's incredible how much can happen in a couple of weeks in the
Legislature, even with this past week being a short one due to the
Easter break. In this newsletter, you'll find a digest of what our
Green MLAs have been up to.
Have a wonderful weekend, and happy reading!
Jordan Bober
Executive
Director
In this newsletter:
Have you been wondering how
a bill becomes law on PEI? Check out this explanation on the PEI
Legislature Website: www.assembly.pe.ca/how-a-bill-becomes-law
Here are some highlights from the work of our Green MLAs in
the Legislature in the past couple of weeks. To catch up on earlier
happenings in the Legislature, you can check out our March 14th Legislative Update and our March
newsletter.
 Green Agriculture and Land Critic Michele
Beaton continues to tirelessly pursue the need to enforce the
letter and spirit of the Lands Protection Act, which limits
the amount of land that anyone person or corporation can own and
control on PEI.
Michele Beaton stood in the legislature Wednesday to ask Premier
Dennis King to direct the auditor general to conduct a performance
audit on IRAC's enforcement of the act.
"If the legislation isn't being enforced as it currently stands,
then that's a concern all Islanders should be raising, and they are,"
said Beaton.
 >>Read more: Green Party seeks audit of Lands Protection Act
enforcement (CBC)
On March 23rd, Opposition Leader Peter
Bevan-Baker opened debate on his motion on
Sustainable Agriculture, seconded by Michele
Beaton.
See the video of Peter's speech introducing
his motion, and the text of the motion itself,
here.
 Green Health & Wellness Critic Trish
Altass introduced her first bill in the Legislature this past
week, An Act to Amend the Health Services
Act.
In a nutshell, changes Trish is proposing to
the Health Services Act will give the power and
authority back to the Health PEI board to implement our provincial
wellness plans. This change will greatly reduce the possibility of
political interference and ensure decisions are being made by experts
who understand healthcare governance, best practices, and how to
achieve outcomes that benefit Islanders.
 >>Read more about Trish's bill
here.
Trish Altass has also had her hands full holding the government's
feet to the fire on its commitments to improve mental health services
in this province, amid continued bungling of this file. Trish has some
hard questions to ask about the quiet "absorption" of the Psychiatric Urgent Care
Clinic (PUCC) at PCH into the ER, and of course about the confusion reigning about the mobile mental health
units and who was going to running them.
In more positive news, the Minister of Health and
Wellness has finally agreed to multi-year funding for the
Lennon Recovery House - something our caucus has been
advocating for for years.
 Karla Bernard's Election Age
Act, which would lower the voting age to 16, is finally
back in the House being debated. As you'll recall, this was originally
debated last fall, but referred to more consultation with stakeholders
which has now taken place and has been very supportive of this change.
Hopefully this spring, PEI will continue its tradition of being the
most progressive province in Canada in terms of extending the voting
franchise!
>>Read more: P.E.I. bill to lower voting age to 16 back for a
second round in the legislature (The Guardian)
>>Listen: Karla Bernard and Nate Hood
(Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of the Official Opposition) were
recently on the Dialogue with Drake and Daboo podcast to
talk about the bill, the state of debate and the case for lowering the
voting age on PEI.
 Karla also introduced a motion, seconded by Lynne Lund,
calling on the government to increase play-based
curriculum in our schools, amid increased evidence of its
physical, social, emotional and intellectual benefits for children's
development.
Finally, Karla Bernard brought up some good questions in the
Legislature this past week about the Alternative Caregiver
Program, which began in 2017 as a pilot project and as a
substitute to foster care. It provides family members, like
grandparents, or family friends with $700 a month.
Karla brought up the program in the legislature Tuesday because of
concerns she's heard from people trying to access the service.
"I've been speaking to not just the ministers, but different people
who have been around the program, and it's very clear that there's no
policy from which they're operating," she said. "A lot of them
are using their retirement funds for this. One grandparent that I
spoke to directly was telling me that she doesn't know what she's
going to do moving forward."
>>Read more: Official Opposition renews calls for transparency on
child caregiver program (CBC)
 This past week, Hannah
Bell introduced her bill, the Poverty Elimination Strategy
Act, to the Legislature for first reading. This bill
would require the government to set targets, measures, and a strategy
to eliminate poverty on PEI. You can read more about the purpose and
intention on Hannah's bill here.
Hannah also have a very powerful response to a ministerial
statement on housing by Finance Minister Darlene Compton that
attempted to paint a rosy picture of the housing situation on PEI,
which we know is still in crisis. Watch Hannah's response here (3
mins).
 See also:
Member Statement on need for a Rental
Registry (Hannah Bell)
Member Statement on the Housing Vacancy
Rate in Summerside (Lynne Lund)
Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker has reflected
last week both on Islanders' relationships with the oldest inhabitants
- the Mi'kmaq - as well as on some of the newer arrivals to this
island.
Watch: Peter Bevan-Baker on the importance of the Lennox
Island Ice Walk reconciliation event on March
29th.
Read: Peter Bevan-Baker's Member Statement on Xenophobia in
PEI.
 Lynne Lund posed a series of questions to
Justice Minister Bloyce Thompson about his ministry is taking to
ensure that organizations do not use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)
to prevent a victim of harassment from reporting objectionable conduct
to law enforcement, and whether it has considered creating
requirements for people or organizations to include the right to
report in any NDAs. The Minister said that he would look into
this.
Watch also: Member Statement on Facing Sexual Violence (Steve
Howard)
Ole Hammarlund made the Minister of Housing and
Social Development aware that supports currently being offered by the
 government to enable
seniors to remain in their own homes for longer are only
accessible to seniors who own their own home - and not to those who
rent. He also asked a series of questions about what the government
could do to make some of the existing home care programs work better
for seniors.
Ole has been working hard this Sitting to inject some new ideas
into the Legislature, not only into modernizing elder
care in this province, but about how the government could
create a "third option" for housing by supporting housing
co-operatives - an approach that has been successful both
here and elsewhere in Canada in the past.
 Peter Bevan-Baker raised serious concerns
last week about the government's failure in many instances to adhere
to the Freedom of Information Act, which requires
government departments to respond to requests for information from
members of the public in a timely manner.
Peter shared as a good example of this the Official Opposition's
own struggle to get some very basic information from the Department of
Transportation: namely, information on
the policies, procedures,
methodologies and decision-making tools used to decide
which roads get paved.  Peter said: "It’s now eight months later – eight
months – and we haven’t received an update in more than four months,
and indeed, we haven’t received any records relating to our
request."
This is important, because there have been questions as to whether
there has been political interference by the former Minister of
Transportation in road paving decisions, and whether all districts are treated equally when it
comes to road projects.
Funny - not funny
This recent cartoon by Wayne Wright captures one of the more
interesting bits of metaphorical imagery evoked in the Legislature
this past month...
 Coming up after
Easter
Steve Howard (who is due congratulations as he
recently became a father to a baby girl, his fourth child!) will be
bringing forward his Renewable Energy Act
amendments Bill 103 for debate.
This bill aims to pave the way for a renewable energy future for
PEI, including by repealing a minimum purchase price law that
applies specifically to wind power today and that comes at the expense
of both households and independent wind energy producers.
Learn more about Steve's bill and how to support it: www.greenparty.pe.ca/renewableenergyact.
The Green Caucus has been
hard at work to improve the lives of Islanders. If you haven't
already, be sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And check out their website at www.peigreencaucus.ca
for blogs, videos and more!
 Water Act Regulations - Important!
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