2023 promise tracker: NDP of Prince Edward Island

Cody MacKay, Kevin Yarr, Devon Goodsell | CBC News | Posted: March 14, 2023 4:53 PM | Last Updated: March 14, 2023

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

Health care and doctor shortages

• Stop ER and hospital closures and cut ambulance wait times, particularly in rural areas. Improve senior care at home and create new long-term care beds.
• Provide "timely and accessible mental health care to all Islanders" and bring down prescription costs by fighting for a national pharmacare plan.
• Stop "the privatization of our health-care system" and increase services and support for cancer patients.
• Implement a caregivers benefit, increase home care supports and build more publicly run long-term care homes.
• Address the shortage of physicians and nurse practitioners by fast-tracking the licensing of foreign-trained health care professionals.
• Ease the pressure on regional hospitals by hiring physician assistants.
• Create a provincial travel nurse program.
• Establish a full range of covered gender-affirming care services.
• Full provincial coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices.
• Immediate legislation, certification and regulation to integrate publicly funded midwifery services into P.E.I.'s health-care system.
• Access to a P.E.I. health card for everyone – e.g. migrant workers, international students when visas expire.
• Set a standard number of required daily hours of care for nursing home and community care residents.
• Include harm reduction centres in community health hubs.

Housing

• "Fix the Residential Tenancy Act" to better protect renters and build thousands of new affordable and accessible homes.
• Create 5,000 public affordable units to be rented out and maintained by the province, providing assured housing stock during hard times.
• Require 25 for 25 for government-funded developments, meaning 25% of units are kept affordable for 25 years and developers are locked into this commitment.
• Legislate the cost definition of affordability using a formula based on minimum wage income. Affordability is calculated at 25% of average monthly income for those earning minimum wage.
• Update the housing building code to allow for unique housing structures like bunkies, tiny houses and off-grid living.
• Create and manage a provincial rent registry.

Economy, workers, inflation, cost of living

• Increase the minimum wage to $17/hour with a path to a living wage.
• Raise the incomes of Islanders receiving social assistance.
• Implement free, universal public child care.
• Eliminate community college tuition fees.
• Bring in a gasoline tax exemption, easing approximately 8.5 cents per litre for Island drivers.
• Extend inflationary support payments to individuals and families through 2025.
• Offer free public transit for Islanders whose income is under $40,000, and develop a regional and urban public transit network.
• Remove the suggested $5.50 cost of the P.E.I. lunch program and implement a free breakfast and lunch program for all Island students.

Environment, climate change

• Triple Prince Edward Island's energy efficiency targets.
• Implement a fiscally neutral carbon tax.
• Establish a Green Jobs Task Force.
• Launch an energy retrofit program, targeting 3% of P.E.I.'s buildings per year to save money, cut emissions and create new jobs. This will include a step code for buildings to reach net-zero by 2032 and mandatory building and home energy efficiency disclosure.
• Invest in the burying of power lines.
• Establish a moratorium on offshore drilling in Prince Edward Island waters.
• Enact a permanent moratorium on high-capacity wells.

Education, childcare

• Provide free universal, public and accessible child care for Island families.
• Eliminate community college fees while freezing university tuition for students.
• Help Island teachers by investing in staff and resource supports for the classroom.

Social programs

• Raise social assistance rates to realistic levels that boost households above the Market Basket poverty line.
• Expand the P.E.I. Home Heating Program by broadening eligibility and doubling annual support until 2025.

Infrastructure and communities

• Complete the installation of an Island-wide high-speed network and eliminate cell-phone dead zones..
• Increasing the provincial budget to finish school upgrades.
• Create a provincewide, publicly owned transit system run on renewable energy and a network of electrical car charging stations.

Governance, leadership

• Launch a Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform to examine alternatives to the first-past-the-post system, and issues such as low voter turnout.
• Lower the voting age to 16.
• Make election dates public holidays and make voting and voter registration easier.
• Increase fairness in taxation, government procurement and equal pay for equal work.
• Establish a Department of Cooperative and Community and Economic Development.