2023 promise tracker: Green Party of Prince Edward Island

Cody MacKay, Kevin Yarr, Devon Goodsell | CBC News | Posted: March 14, 2023 4:56 PM | Last Updated: March 23, 2023

This page will be updated during the campaign, so check back for the latest

Health care and doctor shortages

• Open more walk-in clinics, specifically cough and fever, mobile blood work and prescription renewal clinics.
• Amend the Medical Act to allow nurse practitioners to "work more effectively in a collaborative practice" or to manage NP-led clinics.
• Increase and improve mental health services, including adding counselling positions to family clinics and emergency rooms — and opening psychiatric urgent care clinics.
• Amend legislation to allow physician assistants to work in health care on P.E.I. Create a physician assistant training program with UPEI, increase family physician residency spots from five to 10 and "make it easier for internationally trained health professionals to practise on P.E.I."
• Amend the Health Services Act to "remove political interference" in the health-care system, and do a feasibility study on the UPEI medical school.
• Invest $37 million in wage increases and benefits for health care workers, from cleaning staff to nurses.
• Support health-care workers in skill upgrades, including an LPN to RN bridging program.
• Enhance immunization programs, including expanding clinics in schools.
• Review COVID-19 pandemic response and update pandemic plan.
• Improve health education in the K-12 curriculum.
• Provide free or low-cost access to fitness activities and artistic, cultural, and social activities for Islanders, to improve their mental and physical health.
• Expand active transportation and trail infrastructure.
• Provide Islanders with free access to birth control, including oral contraceptives and intrauterine devices.
• Boost funding to provincial pharmacare by $18 million to match the Canadian average per capita investment in pharmacare
• Complete the new mental health hospital, establish Psychiatric Urgent Care Clinics (PUCCs) outside of Charlottetown, and increase the number of guidance counsellors in schools.
• Create a Perinatal Mental Health strategy.
• Expand home-care services to seniors and other Islanders in need.
• Create a withdrawal management (detox) facility in Summerside.
• Offer low-interest loans to private long-term care facilities to make capital improvements, seeking an ownership stake in funding agreements to begin the transition away from for-profit care.
• Build more public long-term care beds.
• Legislate national standards of care.
• Create a restorative care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Housing

• Commit at least $385 million over the next five years to build new public housing and repair existing housing, including seniors housing. Spend at least $100 million over four years to buy existing residential and commercial accommodations and convert them into public housing.
• Establish a right of first refusal on the sale of multi-unit residential and commercial accommodations to ensure government has the first opportunity to buy housing. Make low-interest loans available to housing developers too.
• Introduce programs to address labour shortages in the construction sector.
• "Protect Islanders from illegal rents by establishing a rental registry" and make the moratorium on renovictions permanent.
• Expand government-funded emergency and transitional shelter facilities.
• Amend Planning Act to promote density, encourage development in transit corridors and reduce loss of farmland.
• Promote inclusionary zoning to encourage the creation of more affordable units in new housing projects.
• Create a speculation and flipping tax.
• End blind bidding in home purchases.
• Move toward Lands-Protection-Act-styled regulation housing, appointing a commissioner to make recommendations on its design and implementation.

Economy, workers, inflation, cost of living

• Raise the low-income tax reduction threshold from $20,000 to $25,000 over four years.
• Create additional tax brackets to "better" tax high incomes.
• Index tax brackets to inflation to protect against bracket creep and keep more money in the pockets of Islanders.
• Create a refundable tax credit for Islanders earning between $30,000 and $50,000 at a cost of $8 million per year in year one with increased investment. The average benefit would be approximately $250.
• Immediately increase the minimum wage to $15.20 and make sure it keeps pace with inflation, increasing it by $1 per year until it reaches a living wage.
• Create a basic income pilot.
• Increase social assistance rates and index them to inflation.
• Legislate 10 paid sick days for Island workers.

Environment, climate change

• Bring in Island-wide land-use planning with a strong focus on making communities more sustainable, reducing emissions, protecting the shoreline and forests, and moving development away from areas prone to flooding or erosion.
• Make land ownership and purchases more transparent to make sure the Lands Protection Act can be properly enforced.
• Maintain the shoreline development moratorium until new and improved shoreline protection legislation is in place.
• Increase the amount of clean renewable energy generated on the Island.

Education, child care

• Invest $5 million in the first year to hire more teachers and educational assistants.
• Invest $500,000 in the first year to hire more school counsellors.
• Implement air quality monitoring in all schools and make the upgrades needed to ensure all schools have clean air. $500,000 would be set aside for air quality monitoring.
• Allow permanent residents to vote in school board elections.
• Provide free water safety lessons to all primary-age students.
• Expand access to vaccinations in Island schools.
• Establish a $2,000 bursary program to encourage students to work in construction.
• Set the zero-payment threshold for P.E.I. student loans to $40,000 gross income, indexed to inflation and with upward adjustments for family size.
• Cover student debt payments for graduates with P.E.I. student loans for the 2023-24 year, and in subsequent years no longer require student loan payments from graduates earning less than $40,000 per year.
• Increase debt reduction grants and expanding debt reduction programs to include students from other provinces and international students.
• Increase financial assistance for graduate students doing innovative research, specifically providing $500,000 in non-repayable assistance to support graduate students in their research.
• Review funding agreements with Island post-secondary institutions to make sure they have "adequate and predictable funding."
• Create a capital fund to build new child-care centres, expand existing ones, and keep centres from closing.
• Immediately increase wages for early childhood educators to at least a living wage, so child-care centres can better attract and retain staff.
• Hire more school counsellors to address the mental health needs of students.

Social programs

Infrastructure and communities

Governance, leadership

• Review progress and accelerate the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls' calls for justice.
• Legislate proportional representation, based on the recommendations of a Citizens' Assembly tasked with determining the model of proportional representation.
• Develop an anti-racism strategy in partnership with community members and equity-seeking groups.