2023 promise tracker: Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island

Cody MacKay, Kevin Yarr, Devon Goodsell | CBC News | Posted: March 14, 2023 4:52 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

• Establish a provincial Department of Mental Health and Addictions, separate from the Department of Health.
• Expand the number of mental health walk-in clinics and mobile mental health, including 24-7 coverage.
• Increase the number of psychiatrists.
• Establish the HomeFirst program, where family caregivers can be compensated up to $1,500 per month to care for an immediate relative in their own homes.
• Expand online access to mental health and addictions services.
• Expand access to mental health services through the use of psychologists as part of the P.E.I. Health system on a fee-for-service basis.
• Introduce a 10-year plan on housing for Islanders living with mental illness without stable housing.
• Double scholarships, financial incentives and return-in-service grants for Islanders studying medicine in other provinces.
• Establish return-in-service agreements for Island students at Canadian universities where the P.E.I. government has purchased seats, and that they would double the number of medical residency seats — including adding four new seats for students outside of Canada.
• Have the premier assume ministerial responsibility for health care for a two-year period.
• Introduce a new Patients' Rights Act that gives Islanders legal rights when it comes to timely access to health-care services.
• Establish a Team P.E.I. Nursing Scholarship, covering tuition for students training on P.E.I. who go on to work in the P.E.I. health-care system.
• Develop a 10-year nursing workforce strategy in consultation with RN and LPN nursing organizations.
• Expand virtual healthcare/telemedicine to divert Islanders from needing to use ERs for non-urgent care needs.
• Expand access to primary care in non-urgent settings to divert patients from ERs.
• Allow pharmacists to deliver the P.E.I. Smoking and Vaping Cessation Program, contraception management services on a fee-for-service basis, and play a greater role in chronic disease management, including blood pressure, cholesterol diagnosis/treatment and diabetes management.
• Provide public coverage for women's prescription contraceptives.
• Allow pharmacists to deliver contraception management services as a publicly funded program.

Housing

• Expand investment in new, affordable seniors housing that provide seniors with assisted living options.
• Enhance the emergency shelter system to provide 24/7 access rather than 12-hour nighttime access.
• Support first-time homebuyers with an income of $95,000 or less with an interest-reducing subsidy on the first $200,000 of their mortgage of up to $4,000 per year for a period of five years.
• Make multi-unit residential properties qualifying businesses for immigrants to invest in for the purpose of qualifying for citizenship under provincial immigration programs.
• Expand access to low-cost financing that provides $150 million over three years in new incentives to non-profits, co-ops, and developers to build new affordable housing on P.E.I.
• Provide financial and/or human resources support to municipalities to expedite building permit approvals and zoning changes in order to help speed up the construction process.
• Re-institute the cabinet committee on housing to provide for leadership and accountability for housing projects and initiatives.

Economy, workers, inflation, cost of living

• Modernize the apprenticeship system to make it more affordable and convenient for both students and employers.
• Enhance exposure to trades and career-related training in high schools in order to let students better understand the career opportunities that trades provide.
• Establish a COVID debt-relief program to support tourism operators with heavy debt following the pandemic, through low-interest funding through Finance P.E.I.

Environment, climate change

• Implement a farm renewable-energy program.
• Expand the buffer zone program and double payments to farmers to continue to take environmentally sensitive land out of production.
• Accelerate on-farm climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives that leverage federal and provincial funding and increase adoption of proven practices.
• Establish a permanent and independent land use commission with Indigenous and geographic representation that reports to the legislature.
• Encourage the development of community-owned wind farms with the goal of achieving wind generation for 50 per cent of Islanders' electricity needs through low-interest financing.
• Ensure that the provincial capital budget allocates a minimum of 30 per cent of its total funding to mitigation and adaptation activities.

Education, childcare

• Fully implement federal funding program for early learning and childcare, including reduction of parent fees to $10 per day and enhanced wages for early childhood educators.
• Increase the number of spaces in existing early learning and childcare facilities as well as the construction of new facilities in rural areas.
• Create a funding program for school-age centres to support the requirements of parents requiring extended hours of coverage for their children.

Social programs

• Increase how much income a recipient can earn while still remaining eligible for social assistance programs.
• Develop a seasonal-worker benefits program to serve as a recruitment incentive for Islanders working in seasonal sectors to expand their time in the labour market.

Infrastructure and communities

• Increase investments in public transit.

Governance, leadership